The Security Summit has a campaign aimed at tax professionals: Protect Your Clients Protect Yourself. These criminals – many of them sophisticated, organized syndicates - are redoubling their efforts to gather personal data to file fraudulent federal and state income tax returns. Increasingly, tax professionals are being targeted by identity thieves. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

Demand payment without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.

Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

Generally, the IRS will first mail you a bill if you owe any taxes.

Call to demand immediate payment using a specific payment method such as a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer.

Please see: IRS Alerts Taxpayers with Limited English Proficiency of Ongoing Phone Scams. Note that the IRS doesn't: IRS urges all taxpayers caution before paying unexpected tax bills. Limited English Proficiency victims are often approached in their native language, threatened with deportation, police arrest and license revocation, among other things. For details see the IRS video: Tax Scams via Video Relay Service. Taxpayers are urged not trust calls just because they are made through VRS, as interpreters don’t screen calls for validity. Some thieves have used video relay services (VRS) to try to scam deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Please see: Consumer Alert: Scammers Change Tactics, Once Again.

Victims may be told they have a refund due to try to trick them into sharing private information. If the phone isn't answered, the scammers often leave an “urgent” callback request. In many cases, the caller becomes hostile and insulting. Victims may be threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a gift card or wire transfer. They may know a lot about their targets, and they usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling. Callers claim to be IRS employees, using fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. A sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, has been making the rounds throughout the country.

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