Identity Theft Resource

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IRS Warns of Ongoing Identity Theft Scams

IRS Warns of Ongoing Identity Theft Scams

At the end of each year, the Internal Revenue Service endeavors to alert the general public regarding identity theft scams. These regularly pop up and target those who will soon be emailed their job-related tax forms in order to file for income tax (to obtain a refund or pay additional taxes). The psychology behind this has to do with financial recovery after the holidays and, face it who wouldn’t like to get a cash windfall from the government?

In times of economical hardship, the identity theft scams increase proportionally in number [1]. The starting point of these scams can normally be found in your personal (and ofttimes work email addresses). The scam starts by getting the victim’s attention with a promise of a large sum of money that is waiting for them. According to the email, all that is needed is to transfer the money from a foreign bank account to the victim’s personal checking or savings account. What could be easier – right? The large sum of cash is supposedly from a lottery winning, or an inheritance. Some of the most insidious scams are those that appear to come from the IRS, itself. This may be from some bogus new policy or unclaimed tax refund based on an obscure technicality that the victim wasn’t aware of when they filed their taxes.

Scams based on religious beliefs.

Due to the poor economy, you will also see a large number of scams that rely heavily on the criminal element masquerading as extremely religious individuals. These scammers will use the name of God and attempt to get on the good side of the victim by pretending to be followers of Christianity. They will pretend to be involved with charities and ask for help to get money to those who are less fortunate. But they can be spotted if you know the “language” of the scammer [2]. The ironic thing about these identity theft scams is that, although the scams are being reported as “new”, they are, in truth, just variations of scams that were popular way back in 1920.

Government-related scams

Scammers posing as government related officials from the FBI, the Department of Justice or the IRS are common since they seem to have a certain amount of power over the victim’s circumstances. These scams can be based in either fear for the targeted individual or a sense of relief. This can appear to the victim that a financial problem may be readily resolved. The victim can be contacted and personal information acquired through telephone call, a phishing email or text and voice messages. In a more frightening variation, they may even knock on your door! Fake websites and bogus identification badges are also employed to “identify” the criminals. The phony websites will look just like the genuine article – but nothing is perfect. Incorrect spelling and suspicious URLs (website addresses will, in most cases, give them away. When English is not your first language, small things can be very noticeable – such as inappropriate humor on an official U.S. government website. The lack of understanding of a country’s customs and way of thinking can often be a glaring error to a genuine resident’s observation.

How to protect yourself

Some ways to protect yourself from this type of identity theft are, as follows:

Never send your personal information in a response to an unsolicited email.
Don’t click on links to other websites when giving out information. Pull up a genuine website located on a paid hardcopy bill.
Don’t respond to a promise of an IRS refund for answering a “survey”.
Watch out for long email addresses. This is especially true of addresses that don’t start with the organization’s name.

Visit websites that discuss how to protect yourself from identity theft scams and fraud. The more you know, the better able you will be to protect yourself!