It is Tax Season, Don’t Get SCAMMED!!
As we are in tax season, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind you that there are criminals who are continually trying to trick, deceive, and threaten potential victims with the intent of stealing their money or obtaining their personal information needed to commit identity theft.
Scammers rely on fear and threats, hoping to get potential victims to “act immediately,” telling potential victims they must follow their instructions. Please stop and take a minute to think about the situation. Hang up and do some of your own research, verify contact numbers for the IRS or any other agency the scammer is trying to use, and contact that agency directly using the contact information you verified.
Please see this IRS scam text. This is a “phishing” scam that tries to gain your private data. Do not click on the link or try to go to the web address as instructed!
The BIGGEST clue that this is a SCAM: The IRS does not contact taxpayers via text, social media, or emails.
Notice at the top of the example that the text came from an email address (@outlook.com). An actual IRS email address would show an IRS mail server with a .GOV domain (@irs.gov).
Also, notice the same is true when you look at the link/web address provided in the scam text, “https://www.irs.gov.tax-accessible.com” compared to an actual IRS web address such as https://www.irs.gov/help/tax-scams.
They both began with https://www.irs., but the scam text has additional characters (periods, a hyphen, and /) and text in the domain area of the address before ending in “.com”
In an actual IRS web address, it has the correct text “irs” followed by “.gov” and “/” which send the person to the “tax-scams” page contained on the www.irs.gov website.
Per the IRS webpage: Watch out for tax scams and report fraudulent messages
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/watch-out-for-tax-scams-and-report-fraudulent-messages
“The IRS and its Security Summit partners remind you to watch out for a variety of aggressive schemes that may arrive in email, by text, over the phone or through the mail.
If you get one of these messages, don’t reply or click the link. Report the scam by sending the email or a copy of the text to [email protected]:
- Phishing: An email sent by fraudsters claiming to come from the IRS. The email lures the victims into the scam with a variety of ruses such as enticing victims with a phony tax refund or frightening them with false legal or criminal charges for tax fraud.
- Smishing: A text or smartphone SMS message where scammers often use alarming language such as, “Your account has now been put on hold,” or “Unusual Activity Report,” with a bogus “Solutions” link to restore the recipient’s account. Unexpected tax refunds are another potential target for scam artists.”
This Spokane County Sheriff Office news article "It is Tax Season, Don’t Get SCAMMED!!" was originally found on https://www.spokanecounty.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?CID=7