The Internal Revenue Service issued a warning to tax preparers and other tax professionals about “new and evolving” scams, including some that incorporate artificial intelligence, that aim to steal information from tax businesses and taxpayers.
The IRS said these new scams involve identity thieves posing as new clients or the IRS, and using phone calls and texts to access sensitive information.
“…Thieves have upped their game by targeting tax professionals to get valuable information needed to file authentic-looking tax returns,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.
“Tax professionals need to watch out for deviously clever scams that can masquerade as new clients as well as communications from the IRS or others in the tax community. We continue to see tax professionals bombarded by these scams, and people shouldn’t let their defenses down,” the statement continued.
In the “new client” scheme, identity thieves pretend to be regular people hiring a tax preparer and emailing a link to the preparer that supposedly helps them access tax-related documents, but instead collects login information from the preparer or loads malware onto the computer so that the fraudsters can gain access.
The IRS said that this scam is not completely new, but that it remains year-round and targets tax preparers who are looking for new clients during…
