With tax season comes tax scams.

These scams try to trick taxpayers into sharing personal information, sending money or clicking harmful links. Criminals can also steal your identity to file false tax returns with your information. In fiscal year 2025, the IRS identified $4.5 billion in tax fraud.

As you get ready to file, keep these tips in mind.

Don’t Wait — File ASAP

By filing your taxes early, you decrease the risk of a criminal filing with your Social Security number (SSN). If you’re not quite ready to file, consider requesting an identity protection PIN. This six-digit number helps the IRS verify your identity and can protect you from identity theft.

Common Scams

• Impersonation: Many tax scams impersonate the IRS or tax professionals through email, text or phone calls. They often use an unusual sense of urgency or threaten legal action to get you to act fast.
• Debt Settlement and Relief: Fraudulent services may offer to help you settle tax debt or save you money in exchange for payment.
• Huge or Unclaimed Refunds: If anyone says they can help you get an unusually large refund or you have unclaimed refunds, assume it’s a scam. You can check your official refund status on the IRS website.
• Social Media: Social media is full of harmful tax advice. Some schemes encourage taxpayers to inaccurately complete tax forms or file claims that don’t apply to them.

Steps to Protect Yourself

The IRS initiates contact with taxpayers by mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service, except under extreme circumstances. Any other form of unexpected contact that appears to be from the IRS is likely a scam.

1. Be suspicious: Assume any threat or request for personal information via email, text or phone is a scam. Legitimate organizations will never ask you to share your SSN, banking information or a username and password in these ways.
2. Take your time: Carefully examine all URLs before clicking them. And verify an email sender’s address to ensure it is legitimate — emails from the IRS should come from an IRS.gov email address.
3. Ask for help: If you suspect tax fraud or you’re being targeted by IRS impersonators, report it to the IRS and see these tips to limit damages. If you think your NC State email address is being targeted by a scam, use one of these methods to report it directly to the Office of Information Technology’s Cybersecurity Operations team:

• Use Gmail’s built-in reporting feature:

1. On a computer, open the suspicious email.
2. Click the More option (three vertical dots) at the top-right corner.
3. Select Report phishing.

• Send suspicious emails to [email protected].

For additional support, contact the NC State Help Desk via the NC State IT Service Portal or call 919.515.HELP (4357). Learn more ways to recognize tax scams from the IRS.