Don't Fall for Tax Season Scams

This time of year consumers spend more time thinking about taxes and tax-related issues. That's why they may be more vulnerable to scams masquerading as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) communications.

These scams are around all year round, but they seem more prevalent this time of year. They may appropriate the name, logo or other appurtenances of the IRS or U.S. Department of the Treasury to mislead taxpayers into believing that the scam is legitimate.

Scams involving the impersonation of the IRS usually take the form of e-mails, tweets or other online messages to consumers. Scammers may also use phones and faxes to reach intended victims. Some scammers set up phony Websites.

(Read consumer complaints about tax companies).

The IRS and e-mail

Generally, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails to taxpayers. Further, it does not discuss tax account information with taxpayers via e-mail or use e-mail to solicit sensitive financial and personal information from taxpayers. The IRS does not request financial account security information, such as PIN numbers, from taxpayers.

So if you get an email from the IRS covering any of the above subjects, you should assume it is a scam and not act on it until you independently verify the email is -- in fact -- from the tax agency.

Object of scams

Most scams impersonating the IRS are identity theft schemes. The scammer poses as a legitimate institution to trick consumers into revealing personal and financial information, such as passwords and Social Security, PIN, bank account and credit card numbers that can be used to gain access to and steal their bank, credit card or other financial accounts.

Attempted identity theft scams that take place via e-mail are known as phishing. Other scams may try to persuade a victim to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a larger gain. These are known as advance fee scams.

Who is targeted

Anyone with a computer, phone or fax machine could receive a scam message or unknowingly visit a phony or misleading Web site. Individuals, businesses, educators, charities and others have been targeted by e-mails that claim to come from the IRS or Treasury Department. Scam e-mails are generally sent out in bulk, based on e-mail addresses (urls), similar to spam.

How an identity theft scam works

Typically, a consumer will receive an e-mail that claims to come from the IRS or Treasury Department. The message will contain an enticing or intimidating subject line, such as tax refund, inherited funds or IRS notice.

Usually, the message will state that the recipient needs to provide the IRS with information to obtain the refund or avoid some penalty. The message will instruct the consumer to open an attachment or click on a link in the e-mail.

This may lead to an official-looking form to be filled out online or send the taxpayer to a seemingly genuine but bogus IRS Website. The look-alike site will then contain a phony but genuine-looking online form or interactive application that requires the personal and financial information the scammer can use to commit identity theft.

Also, the clicked link may secretly download malware to the consumer's computer. Malware is malicious code that can take over the computer's hard drive, giving the scammer remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scammer.

Phony Web or commercial sites

In many IRS-impersonation scams, the scammer sends the consumer to a phony Website that mimics the appearance of the genuine IRS Website. This allows the scammer to steer victims to phony interactive forms or applications that appear genuine and require the targeted victim to enter personal and financial information that will be used to commit identity theft.

In addition to Websites established by scammers, there are commercial Internet sites that often resemble the authentic IRS site or contain some form of the IRS name in the address but end with a .com, .net, .org or other designation instead of .gov. These sites have no connection to the IRS. Consumers may unknowingly visit these sites when searching the Internet to retrieve tax forms, publications and other information from the IRS.

The official Website for the Internal Revenue Service is IRS.gov and it contains a lot of helpful information and advice for taxpayers. The best way to make sure you are at the right site is to type in www.irs.gov in your browser.