Tax Professionals Warned of e-Services Scam; Urged to be Wary of Schemes as Filing Season Deadline Approaches

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today warned tax professionals to beware of phishing email scams claiming to be from IRS e-Services and of schemes in general as the April 18 deadline nears.
Acting as the Security Summit, the IRS, state tax agencies and the tax industry warned that this time of year is the high season for identity thieves scams to steal sensitive data from tax professionals. All tax preparers and their employees must be on guard against phishing activities.
The IRS noted a particular surge in the past 24 hours related to a phishing email scam that seeks to steal practitioners’ usernames and passwords for IRS e-Services.
The subject lines on these scam emails vary but they generally are related to e-Service account closures. Some examples include:

• Account Closure!
• e-Service Account is Blocked
• Few Hours to Close Your Account
• Your Account is Closed
• Your Account is Terminated
• 24Hrs to Block Your Account

Links in the scam email send practitioners to a fake e-Services login page where thieves can steal the user’s credentials. It is “signed” by “IRS gov e-Services.”
The thieves are keying off on IRS efforts to increase protections for e-Services, including recent IRS efforts to encourage tax professionals to revalidate their identity to avoid delays accessing their e-Services account.
E-Services account holders should beware of schemes to obtain their password information. If an account has been closed because of failure to revalidate, users should contact the e-Services Help Desk to have it reopened. Users who are in doubt about the validity of emails should never open a link or attachment, but instead go directly to https://www.irs.gov/eservices. Users also should sign up for Quick Alerts, e-News for Tax Professionals or other subscription services to receive information directly from the IRS.

IRS, States and Tax Industry Warn of Last-Minute Email Scams

The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry today warned both tax professionals and taxpayers of last-minute phishing email scams, especially those requesting last-minute deposit changes for refunds or account updates.

As the 2017 tax filing season winds down to the April 18 deadline, tax-related scams of various sorts are at their peak. The IRS urged both tax professionals and taxpayers to be on guard against suspicious activity.

The IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.

The IRS also suggests that tax professionals change and strengthen their own email passwords to better protect their email accounts used to exchange sensitive data with clients.

Remember: never open an attachment or link from an unknown or suspicious source. It may infect your computer with malware or steal information.

For more information refer to this IRS link for further instructions on what to do when dealing with phishing/online scams:
https://www.irs.gov/uac/report-phishing

Acknowledgement Status

Around the March 15 and April 15 deadlines, the processing volume at the IRS will increase daily. Both return volume and return size will affect processing time. While you are accustomed to receiving your Federal acknowledgements within a one hour time-frame, that turnaround time will increase as the deadline approaches. You may see your acknowledgements take from 2 to 4 hours, and possibly longer.

Current year federal:

Corp, S-Corp, & Partnership acks

Business Extension acks

Current year state: Note: State acks are not considered late until outstanding for more than five days. 

FL Business

IN Business

KY Individual

LA Business and Individual

MI Business

NJ Business

NY Business