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.
Scott Beeman joined Aflac as senior vice president; president of Premier Life, Absence and Disability Solutions (PLADS) in 2020, responsible for leading all aspects of Aflac’s PLADS business. With more than 20 years of leadership experience in the insurance and health care industry, Scott is a visionary with a proven track record of channeling his passion and creativity not only into driving revenue and profitable growth, but also into instituting scalable and sustainable infrastructures and leading the pace and progress of restructurings, product development, and organizational change management programs to realize growth and create new value.
Prior to joining Aflac, Scott was president and chief operating officer of Benefit Harbor Insurance Services, LLC. He also previously served as head of Business Strategy, Operations and IT for the Life, Disability and Absence Management program at Zurich, responsible for the creation of the overall strategic value proposition and execution of its life insurance and disability operations with emphasis on the growth of the group life insurance business. Prior to joining Zurich, Scott held numerous leadership positions with Aetna, including head of Life and Long Term Care Businesses and chief executive officer of Aetna Workforce Availability, where he successfully demonstrated the ability to launch and exponentially grow both new and well established businesses. Prior to joining Aetna, Scott held positions of increasing responsibility in various sectors of the health care industry. He previously co-founded his own company, specializing in Internet-based information systems for the high-tech medical equipment sector, which he successfully negotiated for sale in 2001.
Within his local community, Scott serves on the board of The Cove Center for Grieving Children. He holds a Bachelor of Science in health policy and management from Providence College in Rhode Island and earned a certificate of professional development in executive leadership from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Marla Willner is the head of commercial credit management and strategic Initiatives for TD Bank. She is also executive sponsor of the bank's Women in Leadership Employee Group.
“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.
