Cybercrime and Fraud

A Fox News tech report warns that confusion around the end of the free, government‑run tax‑filing system for 2026 is creating prime conditions for scammers to exploit U.S. taxpayers. Lynette Owens of security firm Trend Micro says criminals are ramping up impersonation schemes—fake IRS refund emails, texts claiming 'new rules' or urgent account problems, and bogus low‑cost or 'government‑backed' tax‑help offers that harvest personal and financial data. Many scams now drive victims to polished but fraudulent IRS login pages to steal credentials, leveraging language like 'new rules' and 'urgent issues' to trigger panic and short‑circuit skepticism. Experts stress that the IRS does not initiate contact about refunds or account problems by email or text, and advise people to ignore embedded links and instead type IRS.gov directly into a browser or use trusted tax‑prep portals. The piece underlines that the combination of a changed filing landscape and refund anxiety significantly raises nationwide fraud risk this season.