The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) on Tuesday, Jan. 28, warned taxpayers that scammers are impersonating the IRS this tax season by sending fraudulent text messages to people asking them for sensitive personal information.
The fake text messages try to convince the recipients that they will receive an economic impact payment, also known as a recovery rebate credit, from the IRS, but TIGTA said it’s a scam to steal their personal data.
The scammers are preying on the IRS’s recent announcement to issue automatic payments to eligible people who didn’t claim the recovery rebate credit on their 2021 tax returns. The IRS earlier stated that taxpayers did not need to take action to receive the payments.
“Don’t take the bait. Don’t respond” to these fake texts, TIGTA said in a scam alert on its website. “Report this scam to our hotline.”