Every year, the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, releases what it calls the “dirty dozen” or a list of tax scams that people should be on the lookout for.
Scams come in all forms through texts, emails, phone calls and more. They can also include so-called ghost preparers, or people who say they can fill out someone’s taxes -- and never do.
With swindlers now using AI tools, scams can appear to be more personalized–even going so far as to use IRS scripts so people share their information.
Prevention is key, according to Tommy Lucas, an Orlando-based financial advisor with Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo and enrolled agent with the IRS. For example, he recommends signing up for an IRS identity protection pin–without the pin, a scammer cannot file for a consumer’s tax return.
“I kind of liken it to multi-factor authentication that a lot of us have right now on our phones when we're logging into our bank accounts,” Lucas said. “ This is a true way to make it a lot harder for scammers.”
Because retirees make up a large portion of the population in Florida, the elderly community tends to be more sustainable to scammers.
“[Scammers] play on the fear, the emotion, that can drive someone to take an action that is not advantageous and would negatively affect them,” Lucas said. “So we're seeing as more of those individuals start to come and retire down here, that they're the ones being more targeted. So, Florida is definitely a hot spot for tax fraud, and especially with that demographic.”
To avoid being scammed, consumers should know things like the IRS will never do an initial correspondence electronically. Additionally, if the preparer doesn’t have their preparer tax identification number, Lucas said you should end communication immediately.
