Scammers are everywhere in the United States. They can appear from everywhere and by all kinds of means. For that reason, the IRS warns that we should be extremely careful when filing our tax returns. If we are entitled to an IRS tax refund, it is very likely that scammers will try to get our money.
Through a variety of trickery, scammers are able to get the information they need to steal our identity. Once they have stolen our identity, they can not only steal our tax refund, but also our Social Security number.
And that’s why we need to learn how to identify scammers, so we can avoid being robbed of all our hard-earned money. Remember that they can appear in many different forms and with many different means. Moreover, over the years they have been modernizing their way of acting, so we can expect anything from them.
IRS keys to help us identify scammers
Thanks to the IRS’s own clues to help us identify scammers, we will have a better chance of falling into their traps. No one wants their tax refund to end up in the pocket of one of these scammers.
- You get a letter from the IRS inquiring about a suspicious tax return that you did not file.
- You can’t e-file your tax return because of a duplicate Social Security number.
- You get a tax transcript in the mail that you did not request.
- You get an IRS notice that an online account has been created in your name.
- You get an IRS notice that your existing online account has been accessed or disabled when you took no action.
- You get an IRS notice that you owe additional tax or refund offset, or that you have had collection actions taken against you for a year you did not file a tax return.
- IRS records indicate you received wages or other income from an employer you didn’t work for.
- You’ve been assigned an Employer Identification Number but you did not request an EIN.
Official list obtained through the official IRS website.
Knowing these details we can have more peace of mind when filing our tax return. Remember that if you need help from an advisor, you must be sure that the IRS works directly with them and that they are not trying to scam you.