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.
Brien Joyce is vice president of lender services at EFG Companies.
Hermann Sidhu is EY’s global assurance digital leader. He is responsible for utilizing game-changing technologies and practices to drive large-scale connectivity and digital innovation across the global audit practice. Sidhu is leading a team focused on creating more specialized, detailed and differentiated audit services by incorporating AI, robotic process automation and analytics. Prior to relocating to Dublin in 2011, Sidhu spent most of his career working in the United States and Japan where he served large listed multinationals to emerging companies within the technology and telco sectors. Currently, in Ireland Hermann serves the Irish and EMEA operations of some of EY's largest Global Fortune 100 clients as well as advising domestic clients on successful IPOs and M&A transactions. Sidhu is a licensed CPA in the state of Florida, USA. He graduated from the University of Florida with both a bachelor of Finance and Accounting degree and a Masters in Accounting.
Persico leads the global assurance service line, which is composed of nearly 70,000 people worldwide, and has the overall responsibility for developing its strategy.
In addition to auditing, his competencies include transaction support, IPOs, IFRS conversion and SEC filings.
Persico joined EY in 1986 and has served in a wide range of roles in both Europe and the US, including assurance leader for EMEIA, assurance COO for EMEIA, assurance leader for Italy and the former continental western Europe area and sector leader for technology and communication. In addition to auditing, he has experience of transaction support, IPOs, IFRS conversion and SEC filings. He still serves as the global client service partner for several Global Fortune 500 companies.
During Persico's three-year tenure as EMEIA assurance leader, he worked extensively with European regulators, and successfully established the Assurance specialty practices including Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services, Financial Accounting Advisory Services and Climate Change and Sustainability Services.
Persico is on the board of several foundations and contributes his time to various education and not-for-profit organizations.
Felice has a master's degree in business economics from the University of Turin School of Business, where he has also been a professor of accounting and auditing. He is qualified and active as a U.S. CPA and as an Italian Chartered Accountant (Dottore Commercialista and Revisore Contabile).
“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.
