The IRS is urging taxpayers to be aware of fraudulent texts requesting personal and financial information, which have increased “exponentially” this year, the CPA Practice Advisor reported.

These scams can be an MMS (multiple messaging service) or a short message service (SMS), and are known as “smishing.” (This is similar to “phishing,” which is another type of cyber attack). They appear to be official IRS notifications, “offering lures like fake COVID relief, tax credits or help setting up an IRS online account.” They urge the recipient to click a link that will unwittingly lead to a site that can compromise personal information or infect a device with malicious code. Some schemes have also been known to threaten recipients with legal action, hoping to scare them into sending payment to a phony site.

“This is phishing on an industrial scale so thousands of people can be at risk of receiving these scam messages,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “In recent months, the IRS has reported multiple large-scale smishing campaigns that have delivered thousands – and even hundreds of thousands – of IRS-themed messages in hours or a few days, far exceeding previous levels of activity.”

The IRS “doesn't send unsolicited texts or emails…and “will never demand immediate payment using a gift card, prepaid debit card or wire transfer or threaten to have a taxpayer arrested,” the agency stated in a December 2020 Tax Tip.

The agency tells anyone who receives such scams the following process to help the IRS capture important details:

• Create a new email to phishing@irs.gov;
• Copy the caller ID number (or email address);
• Paste the number (or email address) into the email;
• Press and hold the SMS/text message and select “copy”;
• Paste the message into the email;
• If possible, include the exact date, time, time zone and telephone number that received the message; and
• Send the email to phishing@irs.gov.

“Their reporting allows the IRS to report these scams to the appropriate service providers for action, protecting other taxpayers who might receive a variant of the same scam,” according to the CPA Practice Advisor.