How To Spot A Tax Scam?

As the tax season rolls in, cyber criminals are ready with their tricky scams to play on tax payers as well as the preparers. These criminals take advantage of tax-payer’s fear of not filing properly or getting as much return as one can.

eScan warns the tax-return payers, preparers and other tax professionals to be aware of illegitimate emails making rounds, seeking for updated personal or professional information that in reality are phishing schemes. It is advised not to click on strange emails and websites, which seem to look as a legitimate site, and are specifically designed to lure in potential victims and prompt them to provide valuable personal and financial information. Using this information, cyber criminals can commit identity theft.

eScan suggests you few points as mentioned below that would help spot a tax scam;

Phone Calls and Emails: It is our duty to pay tax as a duty towards our country. Income Tax Department would never call you to remind to pay tax or file for your returns. Such notices are sent by emails or letters. So if you get a phone call, don’t take it seriously.

Moreover, as originally these notices are sent via emails, cyber criminals take benefit of this opportunity and send phishing scams. Beware of them. The email sent to you will claim that the Income Tax Department owes you a bigger refund and so you need to send your details to a random, unnamed site. Don’t ever click the link mentioned as it probably may be a link to download malware onto your computer.

Never click on any attachments or links in a suspicious email send from an unknown sender, delete the email and blacklist the sender’s email address and report the phishing scam to the genuine company using verified contact information. Many scammers go event take lot of trouble to build fake websites.

Logos: Whenever we see the logo of Income Tax Department, we get nervous and scammers love to take advantage of this fear as a tool to prey.

Incorrect Grammar: If you observe carefully, you will find a few other grammatical errors, broken English or poor sentence formations that would help you to distinguish between a legitimate and a spam mail. Moreover, the language used in a usual phishing email is quite unprofessional. Such emails are not addressed properly. In addition, the sender usually uses his/her personal email address to send phishing email.

No / Less Paperwork: If the mail or an advertisement related to tax-return promises refund without looking at all your information or not much documentation is required, then they are probably running a scam. We suggest having knowledge of list of documents a legit tax preparer should ask to file return.

Tax Preparers that ‘Work From Home’: Many scammers tend to work from home and in such situations, it is harder to trace them. Tax related software are easily available in the market of which they may take advantage.

Charity Deductions: It is understood that everyone wants more deductions. However, if someone tells you that you don’t have to pay your taxes because you are part of some religious or ethnic group, then it’s probably some scam. Moreover, if a tax preparer suggests you to show higher amount for charitable deductions and asking for a percentage or cut of your refund, avoid it.

Twisting Old Tax Laws: Many a times, scammers use old tax laws that anyone would hardly know about in order to dupe their victims. They may come out with some esoteric form and say that you need to fill it out. This is basically to trap you in a scam.

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