Community Content
This article is from the Stoneham Police Department's Safety Officer:
In past articles, I have written about several tax scams to watch out for, but one in particular just came out to keep an eye out for. Fraudsters are always trying different things to steal your money, so I figured I would pass this new one on.
In 2018, according to the Internal Revenue Service, there were 649,000 confirmed fraudulent tax returns attempting to claim $3.1 billion in refunds. The IRS said it stopped 597,000 tax returns filed by identity thieves in 2017 from fraudsters who tried to claim $6 billion in refunds.
The IRS states these fraudsters claim that there is a problem with your Social Security account. Some may say your number has been tied to money laundering or that your number has been suspended. Many scammers call by phone and some attempt to send information to get your social security by email. They send phony documents and attachments to make them look legit. Some of these emails may appear to be from social security or the social security office of the inspector general. Don’t be fooled by this official letterhead. If you are unsure, the Social Security Administration has set up a website to report or check to see if the request is real or not. Please visit http://oig.ssa.gov.