Fraudulent organizations take advantage of tax season in order to commit scams, and one of the most prevalent frauds that has been discovered during the year 2025 was given after the announcement of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding a stimulus payment of $1,400.
Criminals that commit fraud send text messages to taxpayers, requesting for personal information and promising to provide the $1,400 Economic Impact Payment if they meet their demands.
You are qualified to earn a payout of $1,400 for the economic impact that you have had. I kindly ask that you give me with your correct personal details.
A fraudulent IRS link is included in the text, which reads, “You are eligible to receive an economic impact payment of $1,400. Please provide your accurate personal information. We will deposit the amount into your bank account or send you a paper check within 1 to 2 business days.”
This link is designed to entice people to click on it in order to receive a false promise, as the payments were issued with an automatic direct deposit, and there was no paperwork required to receive them.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) made payments to taxpayers who did not claim a Recovery Rebate Credit on their tax returns for the year 2021.
This credit is a refundable credit for persons who did not receive one or more Economic Impact Payments (EIP), which are also referred to as stimulus checks.
It is possible for these fraudulent acts to take place at any time of the year; however, they are more prevalent during tax season. These practices include sending deceptive emails and making erroneous claims for certain tax benefits.
Now that you have received these signals, what actions should you take?
A few days ago, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a warning regarding phishing and smishing as the most common dangers.
The Better Business Bureau has also joined the warning, stating that as a first step, if you receive a message offering the $1,400 stimulus payment, you should not take the bait that aims to steal private data.
After that, the message ought to be erased, and the settings of the phone ought to be adjusted such that either “report junk” or “report phishing” is selected.
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Not only does NBC suggest sending these bogus letters to the following email address: [email protected], but they also suggest reporting them to the BBB Scam Tracker, which can be found at BBB.org/ScamTracker.
In addition, the Better Business Bureau recommends that individuals examine notices from the Internal Revenue Service, refrain from clicking on links, and exercise caution whenever there is a need for urgency because this is a tactic that con artists utilize.
