As this year’s April 17 tax deadline approaches, NCCIC/US-CERT offers taxpayers guidance to help protect their personal, financial, and tax information. Hackers can take advantage of taxpayers by using social engineering scams to attempt to steal personally identifiable information. NCCIC encourages taxpayers to review the following resources and recommendations:
- Avoid tax scams. Look for the telltale signs of tax scams:
- emails that appear to come from your tax professional, requesting information for an IRS form
- emails containing links to a supposed IRS website
- bogus questionnaires claiming to be from the IRS or law enforcement agencies
- calls where scammers leave urgent callback requests
- Safeguard personal data.
- Use strong passwords.
- Keep software updated.
If you believe you have been a victim of an IRS-related phishing attempt, visit the IRS’s page at https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing to report suspicious IRS-related communications.
This product is provided subject to this Notification and this Privacy & Use policy.