For most of us, the typical phishing scam starts with an urgent text or email from what looks like your bank. Or con artists hide behind a fake FedEx notice that says there’s a delivery problem. We’re not getting texts, yet, from celebrities.
So, who could imagine being tricked by a text from Drake?
The Drake in this scam, though, isn’t the iconic rapper. Instead, it’s a tax software company, and scammers are impersonating Drake to typically target tax professionals and CPAs, not ordinary taxpayers.
Tax season, which kicked off Jan. 29 when the Internal Revenue Service started accepting and processing 2023 federal income tax returns, is prime time for scammers to hit us with phony emails and texts. The IRS expects more than 146 million individual tax returns to be filed this tax season, which has an April 15 deadline.
We’re into a time of the year when a great deal of personal information is being moved around. Con artists want to gain access to Social Security numbers and other information that can be used, the IRS warns, “to prepare authentic looking tax returns to collect a refund − or use it to commit other types of fraud.”
Tax-related phishing scams and unsolicited texts even grabbed a top spot on the annual IRS “Dirty Dozen” list for scams in 2023. Some scammers, according to an IRS warning, will use the IRS logo in phishing attempts and claim something like “Action Required: Your account has now been put on hold.”
Bottom line: “The IRS initiates most contacts through…
