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In the summer of 2021, the IRS issued warnings about a new wave of stimulus scams, this one coinciding with the completion of the third round of payments that came from the American Rescue Plan. Fraudsters were sending out texts and emails telling their marks that they were eligible for a “stimulus payment” — and all they had to do to collect was click a link with a sketchy URL and offer up some personal information.
In reality, it was nothing new.
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Some variation of that swindle had been going on since the CARES Act delivered the first round of payments in 2020. But the American Rescue Plan Act was the biggest spending bill in history — irresistible to thieves — and as the size of the pot grew, so, too, did the number of scammers looking to rob every penny of it.
Now that it’s time to settle up with the IRS for 2021, it’s important to be extra vigilant as cybercrooks launch a new round of attacks that blend traditional IRS scams with new-school stimulus fraud.
