Benjamin Franklin famously said that nothing is certain in life, except death and taxes. Today, we’d offer an addendum: Make that death, taxes, and tax scams.
“Every year, we see scammers come up with new ways to take advantage of people during tax season,” says Steve Grobman, the chief technology officer for the cybersecurity company, McAfee.
Cybercriminals have always employed sophisticated methods to steal tax returns, personal information, and other sensitive data. But this year, many are leveraging A.I. to carry out even more convincing scams, Grobman tells us.
Nearly one in four Americans say they or someone they know has lost money because of one of these schemes, according to a recent McAfee survey. And 87 percent of people are concerned that artificial intelligence has made detecting a scam more difficult.
Here’s a breakdown of the common traps to be on the lookout for, how fraudsters are using A.I. to steal thousands, and what you can do to protect yourself.
Popular tax scams (including tax refund scams)
Scammers are texting and emailing people with fake IRS messages, pressuring them to act fast or face a penalty. According to McAfee’s latest data, 48 percent of people say they’ve received one of these messages this tax season.
“We’ll see people getting texts with an alarming message, like ‘You’re delinquent’ or ‘You’re subject to an audit’ — things that create a sense of urgency that have people quickly clicking on things,” Grobman tells us. “Some of these texts will come with a clickable URL, which will direct users to sites that look just like an IRS page, but are really just controlled by the scammer. At that point, they’re looking for you to either directly deposit money or are after your social security number or financial information.”
Another thing to watch out for are scammers impersonating tax prep companies like H&R Block or TurboTax; 33 percent of survey respondents have experienced this, per McAfee, while 35 percent said they’ve received messages about fake tax refunds.
How tax scammers are targeting different demographics
McAfee found that criminals are tailoring their scams based on a target’s age. They’re more likely to go after personal information from Gen Z victims, while for Boomers they’re typically after direct payments.
Young adults are also the most frequent targets, according to McAfee, although people between ages 45 to 54 reported losing the most money per incident, with 10 percent of victims losing over $10,000.
The survey also found that men are about three times more likely to get hit with a cryptocurrency ploy, while women are being targeted with tax debt threats.
How scammers are using A.I. for tax scam calls
As A.I. tools become more sophisticated and accessible, Grobman says they’ve noticed many more scammers taking advantage of the technology. A new trend they’ve noticed is the use of deepfake audio — a computer-generated voice that can be made to sound like a real IRS agent, even down to a specific regional accent.
“That’s one of the things we started seeing this year — fraudulent phone calls with deepfake audio impersonating IRS representatives or local tax agents,” Grobman tells us.
Scammers are also using A.I. to write extremely realistic texts and emails at scale, he says. They’re turning to chatbots, which unlike ChatGPT, are accessible and aren’t equipped with the same guardrails, Grobman says.
“On the dark web, we’re actually seeing instances where there are models that have intentionally been designed specifically for these malicious purposes,” he says.
How to protect yourself from IRS tax scams
With all these weapons at a scammer’s disposal, how can you keep your hard-earned cash safe?
One tip Grobman tells everyone is to pay attention to a site’s URL: If you’re being asked to click into a website whose address doesn’t end in .gov, that’s a huge red flag, he says. And if you’re sent a suspicious link or phone number, it’s very important that you don’t click it or call back.
Plus, the IRS doesn’t communicate with people via text, so if you get one from someone claiming to be the agency, it’s bogus. And the IRS also only emails in limited circumstances: “[They send messages] like, ‘If you pay your taxes online, you can opt to have your receipt emailed to you.’ If you get anything else, it’s almost definitely a scam,” Grobman says.
