Tax refund 2025: A warning on scams, including one involving recovery rebate credit

less than two months until tax day we have a consumer alert there's now been a rise in tax related scams that's right one scam involves the recovery rebate credit our Nidia Han joins us live in the studio with the details on that Nidia yeah we're seeing more and more of these in 2023 the most recent year we have data for Americans lost5 a. half billion dollars to tax scams and already this filing season cyber Security Experts are seeing a 77% increase in tax related fishing attempts with their of generative AI it's almost impossible to detect such scams and fishing attempts it's easy to create websites that look similar to the IRS website it's also easy to impersonate an IRS official the IRS is warning right now many impersonators are claiming you must provide personal information to receive your economic impact payment also known as a recovery rebate credit they reach out to consumers in a variety of ways usually from text to email to phone calls don't take the bait eligible taxpayers who didn't claim the credit on their 2021 tax returns don't have to take any action the money will be automatically direct deposited or sent by papercheck by the end of this month scammers are also impersonating tax preparers even setting up fake filing websites also to get your information to commit fraud including filing a tax return before you do so to protect yourself number one number one file early number two do not respond to any unsolicited emails texts or phone calls and number three verify verify any person or company that you're considering doing business with check irs.gov for a directory of authorized e filing providers also ask for a prepar ptin prepared tax identification number they should be able to provide that to you very rapidly it's issued by the IRS and issued to the name of their company the IRS uses US mail it will never initiate contact with you and ask for your sensitive financial information via text message email or phone and federal government website addresses end in.gov any other domain including do or.net is a red flag now if you do get a scam text or email do not respond do not click on any of those links do report the message to the appropriate authorities or the IRS hotline as always we put links to do that on 6abc.com links such good information and as always there's usually a giveaway a misspelling or like you said or.net that's right with AI though those misspellings are becoming less and less common so you really have to be careful got to keep our eyes out and we've got you on our side and thank you so much