Stock image | Photo by B4LLS/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — The Internal Revenue Service issued a news release last week warning taxpayers of a recent increase in IRS-themed texting scams aimed at stealing personal and financial information.
So far in 2022, the IRS has identified and reported thousands of fraudulent domains tied to multiple MMS/SMS/text scams (known as smishing) targeting taxpayers. In recent months, and especially in the last few weeks, IRS-themed smishing has increased exponentially.
Smishing campaigns target mobile phone users, and the scam messages often look like they’re coming from the IRS, offering lures like fake COVID relief, tax credits or help setting up an IRS online account. Recipients of these IRS-related scams can report them to [email protected].
“This is phishing on an industrial scale so thousands of people can be at risk of receiving these scam messages,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in the press release. “In recent months, the IRS has reported multiple large-scale smishing campaigns that have delivered thousands – and even hundreds of thousands – of IRS-themed messages in hours or a few days, far exceeding…
