{"id":25506,"date":"2022-03-31T14:09:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/?p=25506"},"modified":"2024-07-08T06:04:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T10:04:24","slug":"watch-out-how-to-avoid-tax-season-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/2022\/03\/31\/watch-out-how-to-avoid-tax-season-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch out! How to avoid tax season scams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/L0R3j3UnNnx8rcPWyxGTKf0IWuLIJGj3XiyL48dQDWsAT7HAqfFb03QCbCEikB9oIVWJYn2JMFcFtWik8evBoOGK9iwnwUDquLn1Nz_qdY9s25TrhoCk4GYYr36lQQQwIK1CmakL\" width=\"447\" height=\"193\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tax scams come in phishing emails, phone calls, and even text messages or social media posts. The IRS will not contact you about payments without first mailing you a tax bill, and will not demand payment to a source other than the U.S. Treasury. IRS calls will inform you of the rights and appeals processes for taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some specific things to watch out for include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Demands for immediate payment, especially in forms like prepaid gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency.<\/li><li>High-pressure tactics and threats to send local authorities after you or suspend driver and business licenses.<\/li><li>Calls asking you to provide personal and financial information.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scammers frequently impersonate the IRS, and sometimes even U-M officials, in their email or calls. When in doubt, call the IRS to confirm your tax status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Learn more at:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/safecomputing.umich.edu\/be-aware\/scams\/tax-fraud\">Beware of Tax Fraud<\/a> (Safe Computing website)<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/tax-scams-consumer-alerts\">Tax Scams\/Consumer Alerts<\/a> (IRS website)<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protect your tax return and personal information with tips from Safe Computing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":25507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_umich_oidc_access":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[192,911],"class_list":["post-25506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safe-computing","tag-fraud","tag-taxes"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic.png",1750,750,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-400x266.png",400,266,true],"medium":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-300x129.png",300,129,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-768x329.png",665,285,true],"large":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-600x257.png",600,257,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-1536x658.png",1536,658,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic.png",1750,750,false],"excerpt-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-200x140.png",200,140,true],"themonic-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-60x42.png",60,42,true],"ioslider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-658x300.png",658,300,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-665x285.png",665,285,true],"400x250-crop":["https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Bewaare-of-Tax-Fraud-2022-article-graphic-400x250.png",400,250,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Matt Ranville, ITS Privacy Office","author_link":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/author\/mrr\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Protect your tax return and personal information with tips from Safe Computing.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25506"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25512,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25506\/revisions\/25512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigan.it.umich.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}