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Don't Fall for a Scam When You're Looking for Your Federal Tax Refund Status

Each year more and more Americans turn to the digital services of the Internal Revenue Service in order to save time and effort when it filing their taxes. With the ever growing popularity of efiling and other online services offered by the US government, there also comes a growing threat of cyber criminals who are out to take advantage of those that they can by running sophisticated scams designed to get information from taxpayers to use in identity theft and other crimes. It is crucial that all US citizens understand the existence of these types of scams so that they can avoid falling victim to them when checking their federal tax refund status. By educating yourself about what is out there today, you will be better prepared to make sure that you never find yourself on the receiving end of a criminal's efforts to get your private information or your money. 

The very first thing to understand is that the IRS never sends unsolicited emails so unless you have contacted them first, even if the address says irs.gov, it is not the IRS. If you are worried that they have contacted you via email then before replying, contact them via phone first to ensure that it is indeed the IRS - this is the best way to protect yourself. Links to websites, file attachments and requests for any kind of information, even a brief reply, are nothing that the IRS sends to taxpayers. Obviously, requests for bank account information, Social Security numbers, personal information, credit card numbers, PIN numbers and passwords are going to be fraudulent. This is a tactic known as 'phishing' used by criminals who want to steal your information. Instead of giving it to them or replying in any way, send an email describing what you received to phishing@irs.gov and an agent will help you by dealing with the problem for you. You may also want to forward a copy of the email, but it is definitely a good idea to delete the email once you are done doing this so that it cannot harm your computer. It is important that you report these crimes so that the federal authorities can put a stop to them. 

Remember, it's easy to check your federal tax refund status and you do not need any website other than the official site provided by the IRS itself in order to do so. If you spot any websites that are misusing the IRS logo, name or official forms then be sure to call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's hotline to report this and help other taxpayers avoid falling victim to a scam.