Tax Deadline Leads to Heightened Phishing Email Activities

As the April 18 tax deadline nears, identity thieves have started getting more active in attempts to steal taxpayer data and as a result authorities have asked tax professionals to be on their guard. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), state tax agencies and the tax industry have warned of phishing email scams that will try to steal usernames and passwords for IRS e-Services.

The IRS has warned of scam emails “signed” by “IRS gov e-Services” and using subject lines such as “e-Service Account is Blocked,” “Your Account is Closed,” etc. that lure unsuspecting victims into opening the link and directing them to fake e-Services login page. This allows scammers to steal credentials of the victims.

The IRS recommends contacting the e-Services Help Desk for any information related to account closure and to visit the IRS site for clarity.

More information here.