 Internal Deputy Service IRS tax news. IRS reports significant increase in texting scams warns taxpayers to remain vigilant. Honestly, we've moved way past the point of tax preparers needing to be vigilant. Tax preparers forced to go from vigilant to vigilantees. I mean, you gotta be like Batman to do taxes these days. You're off the- What does that mean exactly? It means she gets results, you stupid chief! Dad, sit down. Oh, I'm so- That's why I'm in the field. In any case, I was once told a rolling stone gathers no moss. Have you ever heard the old saying, a rolling stone gathers no moss? It's like, yeah, but it still gets dirty. Does that mean something to you? Uh... And it tends to grind off all its nice edges too, making it into a smaller stone than it otherwise could be. It's the same as don't wash your dirty underwear in public. The rolling stone, if not careful, may even roll into a boulder and break. Or worse, it could roll right into a person injuring them for life. For me, it's game, set, and match. I think you mean check and mate. And how would the rolling stone feel then? Got crushed by a giant horse, Luke. You want to cut me a break? Honestly, the rolling stone would probably be sued at that point. I was waiting on the line, and I saw the inquirer magazine when I was waiting on the line, and I saw Johnny Carson on the front page. It was a picture of him like this. The lawsuit only leaving a rolling pebble. Then I said, what's up with Johnny? I turned to the inside story, and his wife was on the other page, and she was like this. Plus, a nice green moss coat can be quite fashionable for a stone. Moss coat accentuated the stone's beautiful emerald extremities. It brings out your eyes. You know what you need? You need eyebrows. Pigs don't have eyebrows. Well, this pig is going to. And it could really lessen the bite of the cold night wind, which is far more important in the end. IR 2022-167, September 28, 2022, Washington. The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers of a recent increase in IRS-themed texting scams aimed at stealing personal and financial information. So far in 2022, the IRS has identified and reported thousands of fraudulent domains tied to multiple MMSSMS text scams, knowing as mission targeting taxpayers. So obviously we've probably heard of phishing, typically thought of as the email attempts here. Usually, if they're impersonating the IRS, they're using the IRS as an authority and as intimidation. There's usually going to be a time factor involved and there's usually going to be some kind of threat that being either action from, say, a government agency, or you're going to lose the benefit that you might be getting related to a particular benefit. So you have to act now would be the general idea. So then usually if you click on a link, it'll take you to a fraudulent place where they'll try to collect your information that they might use for nefarious purposes, such as filing fraudulent tax returns or something like that. Or it might download something onto your computer. You would think similar fashion with the text messages, except now it's on the phone with the text messages, same kind of threats, same kind of impersonating the IRS, same kind of time constraint, same kind of end goal trying to get your information that they can use for nefarious purposes. So in recent months and especially in the last few weeks, IRS themed smishing has increased exponentially. So that's a very large increase if that is indeed the case. And notice in the last couple of years, of course, we've had the problems with COVID and the responses to the COVID problem have many of them gone through the IRS with relief such as the COVID payments that went out, the stimulus payments, and also changes to the law, especially those impacting the lower income side of things, things like the refundable tax credits. Now, remember like there was one time where if you were a low income individual taxes were pretty straightforward because if you didn't earn much income, then you're not going to pay any taxes and it's pretty straightforward. However, because there's been a lot of increases to things like the like the credits and the refundable credits, meaning you can get money back with a credit even if you didn't have any income in some cases or if you had minimal income in some cases, that means that one is more complicated for low income people to file tax returns because those credits can actually be quite complex. And two, the change in the tax law means that a lot of people are being confused because now you have a confusing tax law that is different than it was in the past. And that also means the IRS is trying to advertise those new changes to the tax law as to try to show what they're doing in response as a government response. And of course, now you've got these scammers that are going to come into play because that makes the information a lot more valuable. So that means low income individuals are going to be more targeted because if you can get access to their personal information, you might be able to file fraudulent tax returns, which might give you access to some of these bigger benefits. That are being put on the lower income side of things. So obviously this isn't really an unpredictable result of some of the some of the things that have happened. And so here we have it. So submission companies target mobile phone users and the scam messages often look like they're coming from the IRS, offering lures like COVID relief, tax credits or help setting up an IRS online account. Recipients of these IRS related scams report them to phishing at irs.gov. Now remember reporting the scams could be a good thing to do, but you're really helping other people in the future as the IRS tries to compile all this information so they can take action. It's probably not going to be helping you personally with your personal case. So if your information has been stolen and you know someone's going to it's out it's out there online now. So now there's nothing anyone could do about that. You have to take your own action at that point in time. Possibly from an IRS perspective, you try to get another pin so that it would be more difficult for someone to file a fraudulent return and then give the IRS the information that they are requesting so that they hopefully can take action to prevent further people from this happening to in the future. So quote this is phishing on an industrial scale. So thousands of people can be at risk of receiving these scam messages in quote said IRS Commissioner Chuck Reddick quote in recent months. The IRS has reported multiple large-scale smithing companies that have delivered thousands and even hundreds of thousands of IRS themed messages in hours or a few days far exceeding previous levels of activity. End quote with the approach of October's cybersecurity awareness month. The IRS and the security summit partners. There's a link to them here and the states and the nation's tax community, reminded people and the tax professional community to be on the lookout for phishing scams and other schemes that could put sensitive tax data at risk. So part of this email seems to me kind of like covering themselves over there at the IRS saying here that we warned that this possible thing could happen. Well that's great a lot of people probably saw that this kind of thing could happen. So duly noted you told us that that could happen. In any case in the latest activity the scam texts often ask taxpayers to click a link where phishing websites will try to collect their information or potentially send malicious code into their phone. So that would be the key. They're trying to get you to link to another website where you give them your personal information which they can then use for nefarious things like fraudulent tax returns or something like that or they put a virus on your phone which is a scary thing. So the IRS does not send emails to text messages asking for personal or financial information or account numbers. So the IRS typically still does old-fashioned just mail snail mail not even email but obviously there's been a lot of changes to the law these days and everybody else is using the emails and text messages and so on. So it would be reasonable for normal people to think maybe the IRS is is trying to update and that's what they're doing at this point in time but they're not they're not. So these messages should all be red flags for taxpayers beginning in the fall of 2020 the IRS observed an increase in reports of submission scams requesting taxpayers personal and financial information. These mission campaigns continue through the pandemic. The IRS has taken numerous steps to warn people of these ongoing threats including posting a video about how to avoid IRS text message scams. So here they go covering themselves again. We put a video I mean what do you what do you want? We put a video out there we've done everything we can do. So we got it we guys not your fault. Taxpayers should continue reporting these scams to phishingatIRS.gov the uh so their reporting allows the IRS to report these scams to the appropriate service providers for action protecting other taxpayers who might receive a variant of the same scam. While the IRS works to shut down online fraud criminals are using ever-evolving tactics to cast a wider net and catch more victims like using algorithms to automatically generate hundreds or even thousands of fraudulent domains. For example a recent campaign used just three dozen stolen or bogus email addresses to create over 1,000 fraudulent domains quote particularly in these cases the best offense is a good defense end quote said reddit isn't that backwards isn't it usually the other way around anyway quote taxpayer and tax pros need to remain consistently vigilant with suspicious IRS related emails and text messages and if you get one send in the IRS important details from the text can help us to uh disrupt the schemes and protect others. So it's quotes like that that that make it required for the tax professionals to go from vigilant to vigilantes because there's there's no action being this this is this is ridiculous in any case. Reporting IRS related smishing the IRS retains an inbox at smishing.gov so so that's what they're doing they got an inbox over there at irs.gov so it's phishing at irs.gov to process IRS treasury and or tax related online scams only smishing involving other agencies and or brands should not be reported to phishing at irs.gov so if someone is impersonating someone other than the IRS the IRS doesn't want it because the iris is just trying to cover themselves for their own problems they're not trying to get into anyone else's stuff. Reporting IRS themed text to the IRS allows security professionals to track and disrupt these scams individuals reporting scam texts to the IRS should include both the body of the message and the sender's information in one email or text copying the actual text into the email is preferred however if necessary screenshots can be sent scams sms slash text messages can only be copied and forwarded to wireless providers via text 27726 spam which helps them spot and block similar messages in the future the following process will help capture important details for reporting smishing to the IRS create an e a new email to phishing at irs.gov copy the caller id or email address paste the number or email address into the email press and hold the sms slash text message and select copy paste the message into the email if possible include the exact date time time zone and telephone number that received the message send the email to phishing at irs.gov additional reporting that you can do beyond that in addition to reporting the scam to phishing at irs.gov if irs related report the message to the treasury inspector general for tax administration using their irs impersonation scam reporting form there's a link to that here and the federal trade commission ftc through the complaint assistance to make the information available to investors there's a link to them here you're going to be reporting for like a month here all incidents successful and attempted should also be reported to the internet crime compliance center there's a link to that here any individual entering personal information or otherwise finding themselves a victim of tax related scams can find additional resources at identity theft central on irs.gov a lot of reporting going on here i'm not i'm not thinking much action is happening or possibly will happen that's why tax preparers vigilant to vigilante batman tax preparers that's what we need that's what we need so additional resources below irs.gov you got the reporting phishing and online scams there's a link to that here irs youtube here's how to avoid irs text message scams there's a link to that covid tax tip 2020-167 irs warns people about a covid related tax text message scam and then you got the federal commission's communications commission smartphone security checker you got the federal trade commission how to recognize and report spam text messages so there's links to all that stuff here as helpful as it may may be or not and there'll be a link to this in the description