Filing Season Underway, IRS Warns Tax Professionals About EFIN Scams

The Internal Revenue Service and Security Summit partners warned tax professionals of a scam email impersonating various software companies in an attempt to steal Electronic Filing Identification Numbers (EFIN). The IRS says that scammers are currently posing as tax software providers and asking for EFIN documents from tax professionals. These people try and steal client data and tax preparers identities by creating potential for them to file fraudulent tax returns.

With filing season on, scammers are targeting tax professionals as well as taxpayers in hopes of stealing information that can be used to file the fraudulent returns. IRS is hosting a special series of educational webinars which are specially designed to help the tax community. The sessions are set to begin on February 12 and run each day next week, as per CPA Advisor. 

"The IRS and the Security Summit partners have noticed a new surge of an EFIN scam email that targets professionals. This scam serves as a powerful reminder that tax professionals should ensure strong security at their practices, including reminding employees to be careful with any emails coming in that could be posing as official communication. A little extra caution can mean a world of difference for tax professionals during this busy period," said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. 

The IRS also said that they have gotten dozens of reports of scams that are specially aiming tax professionals. IRS warned that the scam email included a U.S.-based area code for faxing EFIN documents and also provides instructions on obtaining EFIN documentation from the IRS e-Services site if it's not available. 

As mentioned IRS is all set to conduct special webinars next week where agency cybersecurity experts will educate everybody about the scam. If you are interested in registering for the session, you can go ahead and click on the date and time for the respective sessions below. Here are the webinars:

Monday, Feb. 12, at 12 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Mountain & Arizona, 9 a.m. Pacific, 8 a.m. Alaska, 7 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian).

Tuesday, Feb. 13, at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central, noon Mountain & Arizona, 11 a.m. Pacific, 10 a.m. Alaska, 9 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian).

Wednesday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central, noon Mountain & Arizona, 11 a.m. Pacific,10 a.m. Alaska,9 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian).

Thu, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central, noon Mountain & Arizona, 11 a.m. Pacific,10 a.m. Alaska, 9 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian.)

Friday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m. Eastern (2 p.m. Central, 1 p.m. Mountain & Arizona, noon Pacific, 11 a.m. Alaska, 10 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian.)

Earlier in 2024, the IRS cautioned tax professionals about the surge of the new client scheme and that they should be careful of this scam. IRS also warns about the phishing scams that gain control of the tax professionals' computer systems and then hold all the data until a ransom is paid. The FBI has also said that there have been instances where even after the ransom was paid, the data remained inaccessible because of encryption. 

IRS says that if any taxpayer receives the scam email, then they should notify the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. IRS also asked the tax professionals to save the email and send it as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov. IRS Stakeholder Liaison staff are looking into it and said that they will make sure that all IRS offices are alerted in case of any scam. Tax professionals are asked to be super careful against other phishing scams which look at stealing EFIN, Preparer Tax Identification Numbers, and passwords, for that matter. If you want to take a look at the fraudulent email, click here.