The Internal Revenue Service periodically reminds taxpayers and tax professionals to be careful in responding to fraudulent contacts using the IRS name or logo in telephone calls, unsolicited facsimiles, emails, text messages or paper correspondence. Scammers and other criminals often attempt to impersonate the IRS in an effort to derive payment by debit card payments, wire transfers or ("Wow") even "gift cards," or access a taxpayer's confidential financial information.
The IRS has repeatedly emphasized that it does not contact taxpayers by the above methods, other than by correspondence legitimately sent by U.S. mail. If you have initiated a contact with the IRS about a particular tax matter or have contacted the IRS by telephone, an IRS representative may speak with you but will always identify himself or herself by name and badge number. Like other phishing scams, never respond to suspicious emails, open attachments or click on links embedded in emails.
For further guidance and resources, both as to how to protect yourself and report suspected tax fraud, visit the IRS at https://www.irs.gov/privacy-disclosure/report-phishing.
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