Tax Season Ushers In Scams

With taxes due April 17, most of us procrastinators will be spending the next week or so getting the necessary paperwork in order to file.

But tax season also is scam season for scam artists looking to get at your personal information.

Clinton Raines, owner/agent of the State Farm insuance agency in East Atlanta, offers these tax-scamming tips for consumers to protect themselves:

• Scamming comes in the form of phishing emails designed to trick you into thinking they are from the Internal Revenue Service.
• Scammers are expanding beyond the phishing, though combing through social media sites including Facebook and LinkedIn to get personal information about you to increase the likelihood that you'll fall for a con.
• The IRS will not send you an unsolicited e-mail in most cases asking for personal info such as your Social Security number.
• Don't click on links or even open suspicious e-mails, but forward them to: phishing@irs.gov and then delete them from your computer.
• When in doubt, go directly to the IRS' official website to get information.
• Expecting a refund or not sure? go to the IRS' "Where's My Refund?" site to find legitimate information.

You can find more detailed information about scams that impersonate the IRS and the IRS offers these precautions to take to minimize your chances of falling victim.