For years scammers have been attempting to fool taxpayers with calls and emails that fraudulently claim to be from IRS agents. Lately, crooks have reached deeper into their bags of tricks to come up with a new kind of phishing scheme. They are contacting random people with genuine-appearing IRS notifications regarding “a new stimulus payment” to be sent to them. Your Better Business Bureau (BBB) has the following information to share to keep you from falling victim .

Favorite new tactics

In some cases, taxpayers receive emails that include a large IRS logo at the top of the page. Then comes an awkwardly worded (always a red flag of a scam) headline: “Third Round of Economic Impact Payments Status Available.” The rest of the message is peppered with grammar errors and awkward phrasings. The message claims you will be getting another tax refund of $976 as soon as you clarify “certain inconsistencies or missing information.” Handily, the scammer included a button to click to “COMPLETE MY INFORMATION.”

The IRS is warning on its website that scammers are also sending letters out in cardboard envelopes from a delivery service. These letters are asking for photos of your driver’s license, cellphone numbers, bank routing information, Social Security numbers, and bank account types. The letters have the tell-tale sign of scammers: Odd punctuation, strange font mixtures and other inaccuracies.

What to remember

Here are some points to keep in mind if you are the recipient of one of these scammer phishing attempts:

• The IRS never initiates contact with taxpayers by email, text, or social media regarding a bill or tax refund.

• The IRS would never address a specified communication to “Taxpayer.” Or as in the above case, misspelled as “Tax Payer.”

• Never click on an unsolicited communication that claims to be from the IRS. It could result in your device having ransomware loaded onto it that will stop you from accessing your system and files.

• Always hover over or click on the “from” name to see the sender’s actual email address. In the first case sited above, the sender’s address was “Princess939,” which is not exactly what you would expect an IRS message to be coming from.

• Watch for grammatical and spelling errors. Random, frequent capital letters is a sure sign of fraud. Many, though not all, scams originate from non-English speaking countries and mistakes are likely. 

• Logos and official looking graphics are easily copied and pasted onto messages.

• Report your scam attempt to BBB’s ScamTracker This helps prevent others for falling for such tricks.

• Send the scam email or a copy of the text to phishing@irs.gov.

• Protect your personal financial information, especially your Social Security number, by never sharing it with those who contact you unsolicited. Ignore threats of arrest or fines. 

For answers to any other questions you may have about a potential scam attempt, contact BBB at 800-856-2417 or visit our website at BBB.org.