In a relatively new IRS scam, identity thieves are now hacking tax preparers to pull off tax refund fraud.
According to a Brian Krebs report, the fraudsters are targeting multiple tax preparation firms in an effort to file fraudulent refund requests on behalf of the hacked firms’ clients.
A half dozen bankers in Oklahoma said that a “a good number of customers” have reported large sums added to their bank accounts by the U.S. Treasury.
Shortly afterwards, the cyber crooks then contacted the hacked clients pretending to be a debt collection agency acting on behalf of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The criminals attempt to scare victims into believing the deposits were sent in error and demanding the funds be “returned” to the collection company DebtCredit.
Earlier this month, the IRS warned tax preparation firms to step up their security in light of these cyber threats.
The IRS then followed up with another warning of how hacking tax preparation accounts to gain fraudulent refunds is becoming a “quickly growing scam.”