Every year like a bad cold, tax season has arrived, along with its sidekick of scam artists aiming to steal your identity.
These criminals can create extremely elaborate and realistic scams, strengthening your cyber security system is a great way to be proactive and protect your information from getting into the wrong hands.
Acme Business’s team of experts and partnership with Sentinel One gives you the power to fight against these internet invaders. This is top-level software that allows you to take an advantage over online threats, with such high confidence in our cyber security software that we provide a million dollar insurance plan behind each customer computer.
In a recent article from the IRS, it states that the latest scam targets Electronic Filing Identification Numbers or EFINs.
Within this article is states, tax professionals and their clients are particularly at risk. By stealing client data and tax preparers’ identities, the scammers can file fraudulent tax returns for refunds.
Phishing scams are the tool of choice, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement, referring to schemes where scammers send seemingly authentic email from banks and other trusted entities like the IRS to dupe victims into handing over sensitive data.
“Tax professionals must remain vigilant. The scammers are very active and very creative,” Rettig said.
The email used within this scam says it is from “IRS Tax E-Filing” and carries the subject line “Verifying your EFIN before e-filing,” the IRS said.
The body of the fraudulent email states in part:
In a statement given to Fox News, Erich Kron a security awareness advocate at KnowBe4,, explained that these kinds of schemes are effective during tax season.
As individuals and organizations “work through the often confusing, stressful, and frustrating task of figuring out how much they will owe or get refunded… this stress and confusion only serve to make the scammers’ job easier,” Kron said.
Kron continued, stating that criminals typically pilfer social security numbers and bank account information that will allow them to file fake tax returns.
Some thieves also pose as potential clients for tax preparers, the IRS said. In this case, the thief will interact with a tax professional and then send an email with an attachment that claims to be their tax information.
According to the IRS, that attachment could contain malware that allows the thief to track keystrokes and eventually steal passwords or take over control of the computer systems.
One of the red flags is the links that come with the fraudulent email, according to KnowBe4’s Kron. Typically, if you hover over the links with your mouse cursor it will reveal the true email address of the scammer.
As a countermeasure, if sensitive information is requested, you should always contact the requester “at a known good phone number or other method besides replying to the email to confirm the request,” Kron said.
Individuals and tax professionals who get these scams should save the email as a file and then send it as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov. They also should notify the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at tigta.gov to report the IRS impersonation scam.
Data in the article was drawn from Fox Business’ article, IRS warns anew of 2021 tax scammers: ‘very active and very creative’ by Brooke Crothers
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