It can be nerve wracking to be contacted by the Internal Revenue Service. It is almost always not for a positive reason – refund checks excluded. It can be even more stressful to be contacted by the IRS through email, since this contact, if you respond to it, can quickly make you a victim of identity theft. If you’ve ever been contacted by the IRS legitimately, you know that the organization communicates with people through the mail, not online. If you didn’t know that, be sure you do now. A popular practice of thieves is to send phishing emails to taxpayers saying that there was a problem with their returns.
One recent case was reported in the Columbus Dispatch. Individuals received emails stating that their tax returns were rejected and that they had to click on a link to fix the problem. This is especially strange given that most Americans made their tax payments or received their refunds several weeks if not months ago. If you receive such an email, you should forward it to [email protected] and delete it without clicking on anything or opening any attachments. Be assured that the IRS will find you if it really needs to get in touch with you.
You can also contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-382-4357 to speak with someone about the crime and to find out about additional current scams. If you’ve already been victimized by phishing, this is still a good call to make, and you should change passwords and account numbers related to any personal information you unwillingly shared with a thief.
Don’t feel too bad if you were a victim of a scam. Over 11 million Americans shared your shoes last year. However, the smart ones signed up for identity theft protection to prevent it from happening again, and the really smart people signed up to prevent being victimized instead of doing so after the fact.