Tax Season 2024 began on Monday with a filing deadline for individual income tax returns of April 15.

From the proliferating use of artificial intelligence to “everyday” phone and phishing scams, the season is ripe for criminals and the ways they will use to separate you from your money, or worse, your identity.

Scammers impersonating IRS agents over the phone or through electronic means have long been a mainstay of such activity, but as criminal techniques evolve, it becomes more and more important for all taxpayers to remain vigilant.

To that end, the IRS offers a number of tips to stay clear of scammers:

Email phishing scams: The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. Generally, the IRS first mails a paper bill to a person who owes taxes. In some special situations, the IRS will call or come to a home or business.

Taxpayers should report IRS, Treasury or tax-related suspicious online or email phishing scams to phishing@irs.gov. They should not open any attachments, click on any links, reply to the sender or take any other actions that could put them at risk.

Phone scams: The IRS generally first mails a bill to a taxpayer who owes taxes. There are specific ways to pay taxes. The agency and its authorized private collection agencies will not:

• Leave pre-recorded, urgent or threatening messages on an answering system.
• Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law enforcement groups to arrest the taxpayer for not paying, deport them or revoke their licenses.
• Call to demand immediate payment with a prepaid debit card, gift card or wire transfer.
• Ask for checks to third parties.
• Demand payment without giving the taxpayer an opportunity to question or appeal the amount owed.

Criminals can fake or spoof caller ID numbers to appear to be anywhere in the country. Scammers can even spoof an IRS office phone number or the numbers of various local, state, federal or tribal government agencies.

If a taxpayer receives an IRS or Treasury-related phone call, but doesn’t owe taxes and has no reason to think they do, they should:

• Not give out any information. Hang up immediately.
• Contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the IRS impersonation scam call. Go to

www.tigta.gov

• and click the red button at the top of the page labeled “Report Waste, Fraud and Abuse.”
• Report the caller ID and callback number to the IRS by sending it to

phishing@irs.gov

• . The subject line should include “IRS Phone Scam.”
• Report the call to the Federal Trade Commission at

https://consumer.ftc.gov/features/identity-theft

.