With scam artists hard at work all year, taxpayers should be on the lookout for a surge of evolving phishing emails and telephone scams.
Taxpayers should watch for new versions of two tax-related scams. One involves Social Security numbers related to tax issues. The other threatens taxpayers with a tax bill from a fictional government agency.
IRS Tax Tip 2018-151, September 27, 2018
The IRS reminds tax preparers that protecting taxpayer information isn’t just good for their clients and good for business – it’s also the law. The Federal Trade Commission’s Safeguards Rule requires that tax preparers create and enact security plans.
Although the IRS and its partners in the Security Summit are making progress against tax-related identity theft, cybercriminals continue to evolve. In fact, data thefts at tax professionals’ offices are on the rise. Thieves use stolen data from tax preparers to create fraudulent returns that are harder to detect.
