En esta noticia
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a security warning about the increase in email, text message, and other scams that steal financial information from both citizen and foreign taxpayers and different tax professionals.
The warning was aimed especially at professionals who work with sensitive data -although the same alerts apply to taxpayers in general- and was published together with the partners of the Security Summit initiative. This alliance brings together the IRS, state tax agencies, and industry companies.
The new IRS warning everyone must know about
The agency explained that criminals continue using phishing campaigns -increasingly sophisticated- to obtain data such as
- Social Security numbers
- Passwords
- Banking information
- Credit card information
- Taxpayer tax information
As warned, many of these messages appear to come from official agencies, banks, software companies, and even colleagues when they are sent to tax preparers.
What are the most common scams tax professionals may face
- Emails or text messages that urge people to click suspicious links or download malicious files
- More personalized messages aimed specifically at people or businesses to steal their data
- Copies of official emails that now include malicious links
- Messages aimed specifically at executives to obtain large amounts of sensitive information
- Messages from supposed “new clients” to infect systems and steal data
The agency therefore recommends that tax professionals take steps to protect their information, such as keeping their antivirus updated, using firewalls, adding two-factor verification for their data, making backups, protecting information with encryption systems, and using a VPN.