Reporting Phishing and Online Scams

This tax season, remind your clients that the IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts. Find how to report suspicious IRS-related email and phone calls, and get answers to the following important tax-time security questions that affect you and your clients:

• How do I verify contact from the IRS?
• What if I’m a tax preparer and I receive or I am a victim of an IRS-related or tax-related email?
• What if I receive an unsolicited text message or Short Message Service (SMS) message claiming to be from the IRS?
• What if I receive a phishing email that is not IRS or tax-related?

Get answers to these and other phishing questions here. Learn how to recognize and protect yourself from phishing emails with this YouTube video.