<p>The Internal Revenue Service is reminding taxpayers toguard against tax fraud and other related financial scamsrelated to COVID-19.</p>

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding taxpayers toguard against tax fraud and other related financial scamsrelated to COVID-19.

The Internal Revenue Service is reminding taxpayers to guard against tax fraud and other related financial scams related to COVID-19.

In the last few months, the IRS Criminal Investigation division or CI has seen a variety of Economic Impact Payment, EIP, scams and other financial schemes looking to take advantage of unsuspecting taxpayers. CI continues to work with law enforcement agencies domestically and abroad to educate taxpayers about these scams and investigate the criminals perpetrating them during this challenging time.

“Criminals seize on every opportunity to exploit bad situations, and this pandemic is no exception,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.

The IRS is focused on protecting Americans while delivering Economic Impact Payments in record time. The pursuit of scammers who intentionally abuse the programs intended to help millions of Americans is a priority for the IRS, Retting said.

Scams related to COVID-19 are not limited to stealing EIPs and personal information from taxpayers. CI has already seen scams related to the organized selling of fake at-home test kits, offers to sell fake cures, vaccines, pills and advice on unproven treatments for COVID-19. Other scams purport to sell large quantities of medical supplies through the creation of fake shops, websites, social media accounts and email addresses where the criminal fails to deliver promised supplies after receiving funds.

“Criminals try to take advantage of our most vulnerable times and our most vulnerable populations. But because we have seen many of these criminals and schemes before, we know how to find them and we know how to expose them,” said Don Fort, Chief of IRS Criminal Investigation. The IRS is working domestically and with international partners to track down scams, Fort said.

Other COVID-19 related scams involve setting up fake charities soliciting donations for individuals, groups and areas affected by the disease. Some criminals are offering opportunities to invest early in companies working on a vaccine for the disease promising that the “company” will dramatically increase in value as a result. These promotions are often styled as “research reports,” make predictions of a specific “target price,” and relate to microcap stocks, or low-priced stocks issued by the smallest of companies with limited publicly available information.

CI has also seen a tremendous increase in phishing schemes utilizing emails, letters, texts and links. The schemes use keywords such as “Corona Virus,” “COVID-19”, and “Stimulus” in varying ways and are blasted to large numbers of people known by the bad actors in an effort to get personally identifying information or financial account information to include account numbers and passwords. Most of these new schemes are actively playing on the fear and unknown of the virus and the stimulus payments.

People who receive unsolicited emails or social media attempts to gather information that appear to be from the IRS or any other organization closely linked to it, such as the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System should forward it to phishing@irs.gov. Taxpayers are encouraged not to engage potential scammers online or on the phone.

Visit IRS.gov to report or learn about phishing and online scams.

Suspected COVID-19 scams can be reported to other agencies:

• The National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 1-866-720-5721 or online the NCDF Web Complaint Form. The NCDF investigates and prosecutes criminal conduct related to natural and man-made disasters and emergencies.

• The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. It investigates external attempts to corruptly interfere with federal tax administration. Reports can be made online at TIPS.TIGTA.gov.

Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLNews