ATLANTA — Scammers are targeting taxpayers with texts and phone calls designed to trick them into sharing sensitive personal and financial information.
The Inspector General responsible for the IRS and the U.S. Treasury is warning there are even more of these scams this year because fraudsters are preying on a recent IRS announcement that about 1 million Americans who did not claim a Recovery Rebate Credit (also known as an Economic Impact Payment) on their 2021 tax returns are eligible to receive automatic payments from the IRS.
John Haraburda is with Transaction Network Services, a company that flags scam texts and calls.
Their new data shows Georgia is second in the entire country for these types of scam calls and texts.
“The way the IRS communicates with the citizen or the taxpayer is based upon mail. Any call to you by an IRS-labeled call is not going to be legitimate,” Haraburda said.
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Pereptua Mirondo said she received one of the fake texts but recognized it as suspicious.
“I don’t feel like they would reach out to me via texts. I don’t believe that,” Mirondo said.
She’s right. The IRS won’t reach out to you by text or phone.
But scammers are counting on either the lure of free money or the fear of the IRS to get you to act.
“When the federal government is asking you a question, you pay attention,” Haraburda said.
Transaction Network Services found Georgians received about 225,000 tax-related robocalls just in January.
The people eligible for the rebate payments from the IRS are receiving them automatically.
So, if you’re one of the people with money coming your way, you don’t need to do anything.
If someone asks you to, that is a red flag.
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