A manila folder labeled Taxes 2024 sits on a computer keyboard.
J. KatzTax day, April 15th, is only about a couple days away. This year is the latest my wife, Kathleen, and I have our appointment scheduled to have our taxes done. As I mentioned in previous articles, we used to file as early as possible to get our refund quickly. However, those days of getting refunds are long gone.
I am so jealous of our friends who are confident enough to do their taxes themselves or have a family member calculate it for them. I don’t trust myself to add it up correctly. It's the paralyzing fear of making a mistake, and then facing the likelihood of being audited. Also, I may not be notified for up to seven years. No, thank you, Uncle Sam!
Whether you’ve completed your 2025 tax return yet or not, there are some things you need to be aware of to avoid headaches related to filing. One of them is scams where bad actors will try to access your personal information and steal your refund or, even worse, your identity.
Tax Scams to Avoid
Our Chief of Information Technology and Security informs everyone at Magic 98.3 of various scams. He shared, “Microsoft has observed several phishing campaigns using tax-related themes for social engineering to steal credentials and deploy malware.” These fake emails are targeting your inbox constantly, and without proper security and diligence, you’ll be heading towards a financial nightmare.
These devastating scams attempt to redirect you with URL shorteners, which are links that are changed, ideally to make them more manageable. However, they can direct you to a completely different web address than you were attempting to access. You think you’re at a reputable site, and then you unknowingly share your personal information with a Cyber Threat Actor (CTA).
We've also been repeatedly warned to look out for QR codes that are contained in malicious attachments. The CTA creates them to abuse legitimate services like file-hosting services and business profile pages to avoid detection.
CTA’s are constantly using these various social engineering techniques and tax-themed emails during tax season to deliver malware and scam as many people as possible.
It’s important for everyone to know that the Internal Revenue Service does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages, or social media to request personal or financial information.
To be succinct, don’t click on anything ever! Just kidding, but you need to make sure you’re very careful about what links you choose to open, and where you decide to share your personal information.
