ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The IRS wants you to keep your money. That’s because thousands of IRS impersonators are trying to steal it. And the agency has issued a warning of a dramatic increase in smishing attacks done by thieves impersonating as the IRS. According to FTC data, the number of smishing government impersonators has increased threefold in less than a year. Smishing combines the letters SMS (Short Message Service) and phishing. It’s the act of trying to steal your personal information by text message. And it doesn’t get much more serious than the warning from IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.
He said in just the last few months, the IRS has identified multiple large scale operations that can deliver hundreds of thousands of fake IRS emails in just hours. He called it phishing on quote “an industrial scale.”
And they’ve gotten clever, sending scam text messages by the thousands. In May, the FTC cracked down on robocalls, forcing cell phone providers to give you the tools to block them. So now for thieves, the fake text message is their modus operandi of choice. And the IRS is so concerned, the agency released a video to explain smishing.
But there are clear signs of a smishing attack. Here are the four red flags:
- Spelling and grammar mistakes. One common text scam reads, “IRS is filing [sic] lawsuit against you [sic] for more information [sic] call this number on urgent basis.” Notice the “a” is missing as are the periods. …
