Internal Revenue Service officials are reminding taxpayers to guard against tax fraud and other financial scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last few months the federal agency said its criminal investigation division has seen a variety of economic impact payment scams and other financial schemes seeking to take advantage of unsuspecting taxpayers.
Criminals are continuing to use the COVID-19 economic impact payments as cover for schemes to steal personal information and money, and those scams are not limited to stealing economic impact payments from taxpayers, said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.
The IRS has already seen scams from fake at-home test kits to fake cures, vaccines, pills and advice on unproved treatments for COVID-19.
Some scams purport to sell large quantities of medical supplies through the creation of fake websites, social media accounts and email addresses where criminals fail to deliver supplies after receiving payment.
Other COVID-19 related scams involve fake charities soliciting donations for individuals, groups and areas affected by the disease. Some criminals are offering opportunities to invest early in companies working on a vaccine for the disease promising that the “company” will dramatically increase in value as a result.
These promotions are often styled as “research reports,” make predictions of a specific “target price,” and relate to microcap stocks, or low-priced stocks issued by the smallest of companies with limited publicly available information, IRS said.
