 Internal Revenue Service, IRS Tax News, Dirty Dozen. Watch out for scammers using email and text messages to try tricking people during tax season. Dirty Dozen scamming emails. Now I don't know about you guys, but I get bombarded with way over a Dirty Dozen scamming emails basically every day. You know, like the ones that make you question your own intelligence. They're like, hey, we're the IRS and we need your help. Just give us your social security number and bank account information and we'll make you millionaires through backed up stimulus payments. And that will simultaneously keep the economy from going into recession. It's like serious. What do they think I'm stupid? Stupid is stupid does. However, on the other hand, maybe this is legit, given the fact that that's exactly what they do with those big banks. No, but seriously, I mean, have you noticed that these emails are getting even more ridiculous these days? It's like they're not even trying anymore. They're just writing these emails on the fly. And it's difficult to do emails on the fly due to flies being really small. So you need like really good eyes to do something on the fly. Not to mention those beating fly wings you have to deal with. Work suffers when you do work on the fly. That's the point. Like for example, I'm convinced that this poem was written on the fly. Richard Blanco returned to a poem he wrote from the second inaugural of Barack and May. A poem one today says, and always one moon like a silent drum tapping at every rooftop and every window on every of every county, countries. Let me start this over again. I don't know, I promise. Oh, friddled grunt bubbly. Oh, no, no, really, really, you don't have to read it. We've put you through enough trouble already. Fiddled gambled blotches. I always one moon like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop and every window of one country, county, county. On a lurking bee. Vogue on poetry is widely accepted as the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Asgoths of Cria. During a recitation by their poet master, Grunthos the flatulent of his poem owed to a small lump of green putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning, four of his audience died of internal hemorrhaging. All of us facing the stars, hope, a new constellation waiting for us to map it, waiting for us to name it together. And the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Noblin Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Oh, I will rend me in these double warts. I mean, seriously, your average kid does better work while on the can, while simultaneously leaving better work in the can. Honestly, after this display of poetry, kids around the world are gonna start refusing to flush the toilet so people can observe the work they created, which far exceeds the expressive powers of presidential poetry. The absolute worst poetry was written by Paul and Nancy Milstone Jennings of Sussex. Luckily, it was destroyed when the earth was. See if I don't. I present you with a choice. Either die in the vacuum of space, or tell me what's the thought of my poem. Anyways, onto the news. IR 2023-51, March 21st, 2023, Washington, with the filing deadline quickly approaching the internal revenue service today, urged everyone to remain vigilant against email and text scams aimed at tricking taxpayers about refunds or tax issues. In day two of the annual Dirty Dozen tax scam campaign, there's a link to the Dirty Dozen here. The IRS, again, includes a warning about phishing and submission schemes where cyber criminals try to steal a taxpayer's information through scam emails or text messages. This is the type of scam we're probably most familiar with due in part to the strategy being taken by the scammers sending out as wide a net as possible shotgun in the emails to as many people as possible and trying to see if anybody will give them some information which might make it worthwhile for the shotgun type of approach that they can steal the information for a few people. So although we've all experienced these types of emails, they're still gonna be quite relevant in terms of the Dirty Dozen emails just because of the wide net that they're going for and obviously they use those kind of scare tactics within the email which are typically the part of just about any scam where they're basically saying we're from the IRS which is either a threat or a benefit if they're giving you a refund or if they're threatening to come after you and they have that time horizon you need to act now or else something is going to happen and those are still quite effective strategies. Also note that when they do narrow the net then they're gonna give emails that might be more targeted towards specific individuals such as tax professionals then they can get quite more legitimate looking in terms of the email as they target an individual. The reason the emails are quite generic looking when they cast the wide net is because they're casting a wide net. So we still have to be careful of the emails that are more aimed at a particular individual because they can get more and more sophisticated given the terms of a specific individual such as acting as a client or something like that. So quote, email and text scams are relentless and scammers frequently use taxis in as a way of tricking people in quote said commissioner Danny Warfell. Note that these emails always have been around obviously but the more that there's an environment where there's uncertainty about the law in particular because the law has been changing a lot in the last few years that clearly is gonna have an environment where more people are gonna be subject to these types of frauds which will increase the level of the spamming types of emails that are out there because if someone sends you an email during this timeframe saying, hey, the IRS needs information so they can send you a stimulus check or something like that, you're much more likely to say, well, that makes sense given what's been going on over the last two years, maybe that's true, then you would like three years ago or before the pandemic where you would say, that's ridiculous, the IRS doesn't work that way, right? So now, so that's gonna be one of the things that we have to kind of keep in mind as to, well, why would this be happening at this point in time? Well, of course it's gonna happen so that when there's changes to the laws, there's gonna be uncertainty and so they've gotta kind of buckle things or get things kind of straightened out again so people can have that certainty and then there's gonna be less susceptibility, you would think, to these kind of scams and therefore the scamming industry, you would think would be reduced at that point. But in any case, quote, with people anxious to receive the latest information about a refund or other tax issues, scammers will regularly pose as the IRS, the state tax agency or others in the tax industry in emails and texts. People should be incredibly wary about unexpected messages like this that can be a trap, especially during filing season, end quote. I just, you know, just turn off the phone basically is probably the best move, that's what I do. And I've found it to be quite soothing and a vast improvement in the quality of life. In any case, as a member of the security summit, there's a link to that here, the IRS with state tax agencies and the nation's tax industry have taken numerous steps over the last eight years to warn people to watch out for common scams and schemes, each tax season that can contribute to identity theft along with the security summit initiative that Dirty Dozen aims to protect taxpayers, businesses and tax system from identity thieves and various hoaxes designed to steal money and information. So they're just like the Justice League, just like the Justice League over there, except that all the superheroes are apparently lame now after they got bought out by Disney and other Warner Brothers and stuff. So maybe that's not something you wanna strive for these days, but the old Justice League was good. Any case, the Dirty Dozen is an annual IRS list of 12 scams and schemes that put taxpayers in the tax professional community at risk of losing money, personal data and more. Some items on the list are new and some make a return visit. While the list is not a legal document or a formal listing of agency information enforcement priorities, it is intended to alert taxpayers, businesses and tax preparers about scams at large. Fish or smish, avoid getting hooked by either, whether it be a fish or smish, that's gonna be the emails or the text messages, right? Taxpayers and tax professionals should be alert to fake communications posing as legitimate organizations in the tax and financial community, including the IRS and states. These messages arrive in the form of an unsolicited text or email to lower unsuspecting victims to provide valuable personal and financial information that can lead to identity theft. That's just about every email or message I get. Isn't that like the definition of an email these days? I thought that's just what they were. That's why you turn them off. Anyway, there are two main types. You got the fishing is an email sent by fraudsters claiming to come from the IRS or another legitimate organization, including state tax organizations or financial firm. The email lures the victim into the scam by a variety of ruses, such as enacting victims with phony tax refund or frightening them with false legal criminal charges for tax fraud. And that's just something to keep in mind for any kind of scam, right? It's always gonna be, we have information you don't have. We're gonna give you the secret information and you need it immediately. And if you don't act now, there's a timing frame and there's either something you're gonna lose or a threat that you're gonna have enforcement, you're gonna be hurt in some way. So anytime those kind of circumstances come up, which the reaction is to try to say, okay, I gotta act now to do something, but you gotta ignore that impulse generally and say, well, this is probably a scammer and I should just like hang up on them or something and possibly not respond to the email would be the way to go. And maybe I shouldn't even have opened the email. And submission is a text or smartphone SMS message that uses the same technique as phishing. Scammers often use alarming language, like quote, your account has been put on hold. So there's the scare factor or unusual activity report with a bogus solutions linked to the, to the restore the recipients account. So you've got to contact them for this special information that they know that they, how you got scammed, man. And you got to contact them immediately cause they're gonna help you out, but then they don't, they don't help you at all. They take your information and then steal stuff from you. So unexpected tax refunds are another potential target for scam artists. So the IRS initiates most contacts through regular mail and will never initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text or social media regarding a bill or tax refund. So if you get a tweet from the IRS saying that you need to give them money through a gift card or something, then that's probably not legit. You should probably say no to that one. But, you know, never click on any unsolicited communication claiming to be the IRS as it may surreptitiously load malware. That's a, that's the scariest one where they put, they put the stuff on your computer and then steal all your information so they can, so they can do bad stuff to you. So any case, it may also be a way for malicious hackers to load ransomware that keeps the legitimate user from accessing their system and files and I'm gonna lock you out from your stuff. Individuals should never respond to tax related phishing or smishing or click on the URL link. Oh great, I can't respond to phishing or smishing. Now I can't communicate with any of my relatives. Whatever. Instead, the scams should be reported by, that's just a joke by the way, I was just kidding. Instead, the scams should be reported by sending the email or a copy of the text SMS as an attachment to the phishing at IRS.gov. There's a link to that here. The report should include the caller ID, email or phone number, date, time and time zone and the number that received the message. Taxpayers can also report scams to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration or the Internet Crime Complaint Center. There's links to those items. The report phishing and online scams page at IRS.gov provides complete details. So obviously if you report this stuff, it's not like they're gonna fix the problem for you. It's not like that. But you're trying to get these guys, so it's some small piece in the puzzle so hopefully those people over there can find these guys and help out other people in the future that might be subject to the same kind of harassment that you've been dealing with. So the Federal Communications Commission Smartphone Security Checker, there's a link to that here, is a useful tool against mobile security threats. The IRS also warns taxpayers to be wary of messages that appear to be from friends or family that are possibly stolen or compromised email or text accounts from someone they know. So those are the ones where it looks like it's from your friend or family but it might not be because they stole the email account somehow and now they're imposing as though they're a friend or family. So this remains a popular way to target individuals and tax preparers for a variety of scams. Individuals should verify the identity of the sender by using another communication method. For instance, calling a number they independently know to be accurate, not the phone number provided in the email or text. So help stop fraud and scams as part of the dirty dozen awareness effort the IRS encourages people to report individuals who promote improper and abusive tax schemes as well as tax return preparers who deliberately prepare improper returns. To report an abusive tax scheme or tax return preparer, people should mail or fax complete form 14242 report suspected abusive tax promoters or preparers and any supporting material to the IRS lead development center in the office of promoter investigation. So there's a link to that form. There's a mailing address if you wanna check that out. Alternatively, taxpayers and tax preparers may send the information to the IRS whistleblower office. There's a link to that here for possible monetary reward. I don't use that one because I can't whistle for some reason. I don't know what it is. It's got some kind of problems, some kind of defect but in any case, so I can't do that one. For more information, see the abusive tax schemes and abusive tax return preparers. There's links to all that stuff here. There'll be a link to this in the description.