Checklist 270: Avoiding Tax Scams
On this week’s Checklist, we’re talking tax scams. We’ll cover:
A perennial threat
As we saw on last week’s show, scammers can succeed in running older scams … if they can find victims who haven’t been warned about them.
Unfortunately, public awareness of scams and scammers’ tactics still isn’t where it needs to be. And as a result, there are “perennial” scams that cost people time and money year after year.
Nowhere is this more true than with tax scams. Every tax season, scammers come out with their bag of tricks, looking to take advantage of people who just don’t know any better.
That’s why we’re going to revisit our 2021 conversation about tax scams — because unfortunately, it’s still as relevant today as it was one year ago!
Tax scams in 2022 (and 2021, and 2020, and 2019…)
Here’s a list of the tax scams we’ll hit:
- IRS phone scams
- Phishing emails
- TAS scams
- Ghost tax preparers
- Fake refunds
- Unemployment fraud
- Debt relief scams
- COVID-19 recovery rebate scams
To learn more about each of these scams (and how to handle them), listen to the podcast or check out the full show notes from Checklist 222.
And remember, these scams only work if people haven’t been warned! So please take a moment to share this show with a coworker, friend, or relative.
