The IRS has quite a reputation. There are very few organizations whom taxpayers and business owners are less excited to hear from—and with good reason! We’ve talked in depth about the seemingly arbitrary but always aggressive method by which the agency pursues taxpayers who may have committed an error while filing taxes.

Unfortunately, scam artists and identify thieves have figured this out and have begun using phony emails and other communications to defraud taxpayers. The IRS recently released a statement of warning. IRS.gov reports:

The IRS has this advice for anyone who receives an email claiming to be from the IRS or directing you to an IRS site:

• Do not reply to the message;
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer; and
• Do not click on any links in a suspicious email or phishing website and do not enter confidential information. Visit the IRS website and click on 'Identity Theft' at the bottom of the page for more information.

Here are five other key points the IRS wants you to know about phishing scams.

1. 1.The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or social media channels to request personal or financial information;
2. 2.The IRS never asks for detailed personal and financial information like PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts;
3. 3.The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov. Do not be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org or anything other than .gov. If you discover a website that claims to be the IRS but you suspect it is bogus, do not provide any personal information on their site and report it to the IRS;
4. 4.If you receive a phone call, fax or letter in the mail from an individual claiming to be from the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS employee, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine if the IRS has a legitimate need to contact you. Report any bogus correspondence. Forward a suspicious email to  phishing@irs.gov;
   
    
5. 5.You can help the IRS and other law enforcement agencies shut down these schemes. Visit the IRS.gov website to get details on how to report scams and helpful resources if you are the victim of a scam. Click on "Reporting Phishing" at the bottom of the page.

As unpleasant as an IRS audit or tax dispute can be, having your information stolen by a scammer can be even worse. Don’t fall victim to a scam. If you’re unsure whether or not a piece of correspondence is legitimately from the IRS, be sure to call the 800 number listed above before responding.

As always, if you’re in the midst of a dispute with the IRS and you’re ready to put it behind you so that you can get on with your life, call 844-841-9857 today!