Protect yourself from tax season scams

As tax season approaches, criminals are working hard to ensure unsuspecting taxpayers lose money.

Scammers often disguise themselves as the IRS to trick people out of their hard-earned cash.

Carolyn Gamez, a fraud specialist at FineMark National Bank & Trust, deals with these fraudulent schemes daily.

“They’re going to send somebody out and arrest you if you don’t take care of this right away. That’s not how the IRS works at all,” said Gamez.

Gamez explained that scammers impersonate the IRS, using threats and intimidation to convince people they owe money or need to pay a fine.

“They’re impersonating the IRS and trying to use threats or intimidation to get you to believe that you either owe money or you have to pay a fine,” said Gamez.

The IRS will never call, text or email you first. They also won’t demand payment through gift cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrency.

“We have a lot of people that might say, I should have known better. I’m an intelligent person. I’m a professional. You tend to just panic, and when people panic, they make decisions that they wouldn’t normally make,” said Gamez.

These criminals don’t just rely on fear—they also prey on hope.

“It could say that you have a refund. It could say that you have a stimulus check,” said Gamez.

Gamez emphasized that the real IRS follows a legal process.

“They don’t use threats and intimidation to get you to do what they need you to do. They have a legal process that they work through. If you owe payments, their first form of contact is typically through the mail,” said Gamez.

If you receive an email claiming to be from the IRS, do not reply, click links or open attachments.

Always check the sender’s domain, as official IRS websites always end in “IRS.gov.” This is the same website you can use to make direct payments to the IRS.