You may get a call purporting to be from the IRS, threatening to arrest you. Or maybe calls, texts and emails from people trying to get your personal information.
The IRS will never threaten to arrest you, and it will never ask you for your personal information. These are scammers, and some of them are trying to file taxes in your name to steal your refund.
IMPORTANT INFO: How the IRS contacts taxpayers and what they won’t do
Chicagoan Maxine Scott was surprised to receive a letter from the IRS alerting her that a tax refund was filed in her name. She knows it wasn’t her, because Scott hasn’t filed taxes due to her income status.
“I’m worried that if those people get that money, then I’m going to have to pay it back,” she said.
With the help of her cousin Ivanhoe Hall, they’re trying to resolve the issue with the IRS.
“There was a section on the IRS that asked us explicitly, ‘did you file taxes’ and we were able to submit ‘no, it was not us,'” said Hall.
Scott isn’t sure how the thieves got her personal information, but experts said scammers are ramping up phishing attacks to file taxes in your name.
LEARN: How to report tax scams to the IRS
They sending texts, emails with bogus links, even make calls pretending to be the IRS, asking for your social security number, date of birth and more.
“The best thing that you can do, even if you are…
