Tax Scams: How to Recognize an IRS Impostor and What to Do

How the IRS actually makes contact

The IRS states that it normally contacts people the first time by mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Calls and in-person visits happen, but they follow that letter rather than replace it. The agency sets this out on its page explaining how to know if it is really the IRS.

The rest of the agency’s own description is worth reading as a short list, because it closes off most of the channels impostors use:

• Mail comes first. Letters and notices arrive through the Postal Service.
• Calls happen, after notice. The IRS or a private collection agency may call about an account. The IRS says it notifies people by mail before a private collection agency writes.
• Email and text only if you opted in. The IRS says it never emails without permission, and that it sends texts only to people who opted in, using specific short codes.
• Visits are rare and usually announced. The IRS says unannounced visits are rare and that it generally sends a letter before visiting.
• Social media never. The IRS states that a social media direct message is never from the agency.

One practical consequence: a first contact that arrives by phone, text, email, or direct message is out of pattern by itself, before anything about the content is considered.

What the IRS never does

The IRS writes that it never calls to demand payment now, threaten arrest, or inform you of a refund, and that it never asks for or accepts gift cards as payment. Those two sentences, from the agency’s reporting page and its tax scams page, cover most impostor calls people receive.

The IRS also lists the qualities that mark a message as not being from the agency. A call, email, or text is not from the IRS if it is unexpected, rushes you, threatens you, asks for personal or financial information, or demands payment now.

The agency describes the impostor’s signature moves in its consumer alerts: they want payment now or else, they threaten arrest or deportation, and they do not let you question or appeal the amount of tax you owe. A real tax dispute has a process, and being told there is no room to question the amount is itself the warning. Real tax payments go to the United States Treasury through the official IRS payment channels, never to a person, an app account, a courier, or a card.

How to check whether a letter, call, or message is real

You can verify any IRS contact without engaging with it, by going to the agency through a channel you chose. Nothing is lost by hanging up: a genuine balance does not disappear, and a genuine notice can be found again.

1. Do not use the contact details in the message. Not the callback number, not the link, not the QR code. That is the one piece of information that cannot be checked with itself.
2. For a letter, look up the notice number. The IRS publishes its notices and letters on IRS.gov and invites people to search them. A notice that does not match anything published deserves a call to the IRS before a payment.
3. Check your own IRS account. Balances, notices, and payment history appear in your online account at IRS.gov when you have one. This is usually the fastest answer.
4. Call the IRS yourself. Use the number from the IRS telephone assistance page, not one supplied in the message.
5. Record the number and hang up. The IRS asks people who get a suspicious tax call to note the number and end the call, then report it.
6. Do not pay anything to hold the matter open. There is no payment that pauses an IRS case, and a request for a partial payment now is part of the pressure.

If an email claims to be from the IRS or the Treasury, the agency asks that you not reply, click links, or open attachments, and that you forward it to [email protected] following the instructions on its reporting page.

The tax scams people run into most

The IRS keeps a running list of current schemes on its tax scams page. Several show up year after year, and each has a defense that does not require tax expertise.

• The payment demand. A call or letter demanding immediate payment on a balance, often with a threat attached. Verify through your own IRS account or a number you look up.
• The gift card demand. An impostor posing as the IRS asking for gift cards against a tax bill. The IRS states it never asks for or accepts them. If you already paid this way, our guide to gift card scams starts with the call that sometimes saves the balance.
• The oversized refund promise. Social media advice and paid preparers promising large refunds by claiming credits you are not entitled to. The IRS warns that people who try this face penalties and risk prosecution, and that the preparer charges a large up-front fee or a cut of the refund.
• The preparer who will not sign. A paid preparer who refuses to sign a return or to enter a preparer identification number leaves the taxpayer holding responsibility for whatever was filed. The IRS publishes guidance on choosing a tax professional.
• Fake letters and fake portals. The IRS has warned about mailed letters directing people to a fraudulent site that imitates IRS.gov, including a digital asset portal the agency says it does not operate. A letter that sends you to a website or a QR code should be checked against IRS.gov directly.
• Disaster relief impersonation. Callers offering to help disaster victims file casualty loss claims. The IRS says it does not call without notifying people by mail first.
• Unemployment benefits you never received. A Form 1099-G showing unemployment compensation you did not get can mean someone filed a claim in your name, which the IRS treats as identity theft.

These sit inside a larger family. The mechanism is the same one covered in our guide to impostor scams: a trusted name, an invented problem, and a payment that is hard to reverse.

Tax identity theft: when someone files in your name

Tax identity theft happens when someone uses your Social Security number to file a return and claim a refund before you file. The usual first sign is not a phone call but a rejected return, or an IRS letter about a return you did not file.

Signs the IRS lists include a letter about a suspicious return, an electronically filed return rejected as a duplicate, a notice that an online account was created or accessed that you did not do, a tax transcript you did not request, wages from an employer you never worked for, or a Form 1099-G for unemployment benefits you never received.

The IRS sets out the response in its taxpayer guide to identity theft: stop interacting with the thief, follow the instructions in any IRS letter you received, report the identity theft, follow the recovery steps at IdentityTheft.gov, get an Identity Protection PIN, keep records of every letter and call, and keep filing and paying as usual. Where no IRS letter has arrived and your return was rejected as a duplicate, the IRS points to Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit.

Because a stolen Social Security number reaches further than taxes, it is worth working through the broader response as well. Our guide to a stolen Social Security number covers the order of the first calls and what the Social Security Administration can and cannot change.

Resolution takes time, and the IRS does not promise a fixed timeline. Keeping a dated log of every letter, call, and confirmation number is the part that pays off later.

The Identity Protection PIN and what it does

An Identity Protection PIN is a six-digit number known only to you and the IRS that has to appear on your federal tax return. The IRS says an incorrect or missing IP PIN causes an electronically filed return to be rejected, and holds a paper return until it can be verified, which closes the most common route for a fraudulent filing.

It is available to anyone who can verify their identity, not only to people already affected by tax identity theft. The IRS explains eligibility and how to request one on its page about getting an IP PIN, including the route for people who cannot create an online account.

Two limits worth stating. An IP PIN protects the federal return, not bank accounts, credit files, or state tax filings, so it is one piece of a response rather than the whole of it. And the IRS states directly that it will never ask for your IP PIN, and that phone calls, emails, or texts asking for it are scams.

Where to report an IRS impostor

Impersonation of the IRS goes to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is the watchdog office for IRS matters. Phishing messages go to the IRS itself, and the consumer fraud report goes to the FTC. Filing all three takes a few minutes and none of them charges anything.

• Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Report a suspicious IRS-related call through the TIGTA complaint page. The IRS directs people to TIGTA for impersonation and lists the TIGTA hotline as 800-366-4484.
• IRS phishing address. Forward a suspicious IRS or Treasury email to [email protected], following the instructions on the IRS report phishing page, which also covers texts, letters, faxes, and websites.
• Federal Trade Commission. File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC also publishes guidance on the wider pattern of government impersonation scams.
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. File at IC3.gov when the contact came by email, text, social media, or a website.
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Use the USPIS reporting page for a fake IRS letter that arrived in the mail.
• Your state attorney general. Find the office through the USA.gov directory, and check whether your state tax agency has its own reporting route.

Our hub on how to report a scam and try to recover your money covers what each of these offices does with a report and in what order to file.

If you already paid or shared information

Go to the payment method first, then to the information. Nothing about this reflects on the person who was targeted; IRS impostor calls are scripted, rehearsed, and timed to tax season for a reason.

1. Call whoever moved the money. Bank, card issuer, payment app, wire company, or gift card issuer. Say a scammer tricked you and ask them to reverse it. The FTC lists the route for each method in what to do if you were scammed.
2. Report the impersonation to TIGTA and file with the FTC.
3. If you gave a Social Security number, start the recovery process at IdentityTheft.gov and read our guide to a stolen Social Security number.
4. If you gave remote access to a device, disconnect it, have it checked, and change passwords from a different device, starting with email and banking.
5. Check your IRS account for filings or changes you did not make, and follow the identity theft steps above if anything looks wrong.
6. Keep every record. Dates, numbers, screenshots, receipts, and confirmation numbers from each report.

Whether money comes back depends mostly on how it was sent and how quickly the first call happened, and no one can promise the outcome. What is certain is that a caller who contacts you afterward offering to recover the funds for a fee is running the next scam, and that reporting to a federal agency never costs anything.

Tax scam FAQ