Every year around the beginning of tax season, the IRS comes up with its “Dirty Dozen” tax scams list. In recent years the top three have been (1) Identity Theft; (2) Phishing; and (3) Return Preparer Fraud. The 2014 list includes Identity Theft and Phishing in the top three again, this time along with “Pervasive Telephone Scams.” Phone scams often take advantage of recent immigrants, the elderly, or uneducated. It is easy to avoid a phone scam if you know what to look for and if you maintain a certain degree of skepticism when receiving an unsolicited phone call. However, as easy as it is in theory, these phone scams must be at least somewhat successful or they wouldn’t be described as “pervasive,” and they wouldn’t have made it to the top of the Dirty Dozen this year.
Here is the Commissioner’s official generic statement:
Taxpayers should be on the lookout for tax scams using the IRS name. These schemes jump every year at tax time. Scams can be sophisticated and take many different forms. We urge people to protect themselves and use caution when viewing e-mails, receiving telephone calls or getting advice on tax issues.
The reason that the IRS releases the Dirty Dozen list in February is that they have noticed a spike in tax scams around this time of year. However, just as the IRS can (and will) collect on delinquent tax accounts by issuing a wage garnishment or bank levy throughout the year, tax thieves and scam artists pretty much work around the clock.