The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division issued a warning Thursday about a new wave of COVID-19 scams tied to the latest round of stimulus payments, especially targeting taxpayers in the District of Columbia.
The warning comes amid heightened tension in Washington after a riot last week at the Capitol that left five people dead and scores of people injured and led to an unprecedented second impeachment of President Trump on Wednesday. Washington is also bracing for possible protests next week around the time of the inauguration of President-elect Biden. National Guard troops have amassed at the Capitol to protect it.
The new COVID-19 scams echo some of the same schemes seen last year when the previous round of Economic Impact Payments was sent to taxpayers. However, in the last several months, the IRS’s CI unit said it has seen a variety of EIP scams and other financial schemes with the goal of stealing money and personal information from taxpayers. Criminals are taking advantage of the second EIP round, along with the impending tax-filing season, to trick honest taxpayers out of their money.
Tanguy Catlin leads McKinsey's North American P&C Insurance Practice.
In addition, he is a leader of McKinsey’s Digital Strategy Practice and Digital Quotient™ (DQ) initiative, and helps companies build out their digital capabilities to deliver rapid results and sustained growth. DQ is an assessment that allows organizations to clearly identify their digital strengths and weaknesses across different parts of the organization, and compare them against hundreds of organizations around the world.
Catlin works with leading global financial service firms on multichannel distribution strategies, digitally enabled business model transformations, large scale marketing and sales programs. He also serves insurance clients more broadly on topics ranging from strategy and organization to operations, technology, claims, and underwriting.
His recent client engagements include assisting a top-ten property-and-casualty and life insurer in building an internal digital agency, helping a US multiline carrier accelerate test-and-learn capabilities and a personalization engine for its online channel, and working with a number of major multiline players to optimize their marketing spending across media, channels, and products.
Catlin frequently contributes to industry publications and has authored several McKinsey white papers on issues confronting the insurance industry.
Catlin is member of the Alumni Board of the MIT Sloan School of Management and a former board member of the Massachusetts chapter of March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.
David McKeegan, MBA, EA is co-founder of Greenback Expat Tax Services, which specializes in preparing U.S. tax returns for American expats living all over the world. Greenback can be reached at info@GreenbackTaxServices.com and Twitter @GreenbackTax.
Rick Reiman is vice president of employee benefits at MJM Global Insurance Brokerage Group. Rick has more than 15 years of experience in the employee benefits marketplace including specific experience in association, staffing and franchisee plans. He can be contacted at rreiman@mjmglobal.com.
“IRS-CI wants to make sure all residents of the District are aware of the potential scams to help prevent them from becoming victimized,” said Kelly R. Jackson, special agent in charge of IRS-CI's Washington, D.C., Field Office, in a statement. “Please stay vigilant of potential scammers looking to steal your personal information and your money.”
Some of the common COVID-19 scams seen by IRS-CI agents include:
- Text messages asking taxpayers to disclose bank account information under the guise of receiving the $1,200 EIPs;
- Phishing scams using email, letters and social media messages with key words such as “coronavirus,” “COVID-19” and “stimulus” in different ways — these communications are sent to large numbers of people and aim to access personally identifying information and financial account information (including account numbers and passwords);
- The organized and unofficial sale of fake at-home COVID-19 test kits (along with offers to sell fake cures, vaccines, pills and professional medical advice regarding unproven COVID-19 treatments);
- Fake donation requests for individuals, groups and areas heavily affected by COVID-19;
- Bogus opportunities to invest in companies developing COVID-19 vaccines while promising that the “company” will dramatically increase in value as a result.
Taxpayers who get unsolicited emails or social media attempts to gather information that appear to be from either the IRS or an organization closely linked to the IRS should forward the message to phishing@irs.gov. The IRS is encouraging them not to communicate with potential scammers online or over the phone.
