Money scams are designed to drain your bank account, deplete
your credit balance, endanger your credit score, ruin your reputation and steal
your financial account credentials, personal details, private information and
other sensitive data. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and the FBI (Federal
Bureau of Investigation) announced in their recent report that tax scams are
still on the rise this 2017. These tax scams are variants of fraudulent money
schemes, and it sticks to the same main objective - To steal your hard-earned
money.
Tax scams have victimized a lot of users throughout the last
few years. Fraudsters and organized crime groups that operate these types of
money scams mostly target American taxpayers. Their intended victims are often
Americans in their senior years.
- How Are Tax Scams Committed?
Different scammers and organized crime groups use a wide
variety of tactics and schemes for carrying out these money scams. Many of them
use mass mailing campaigns to send out phishing messages that are designed to
trick users into thinking that they're getting emails from the IRS (Internal
Revenue Service). They use spoofed email addresses, which continue to fool a
lot of users.
Other fraudsters use the phone to increase the chances of
victimizing unsuspecting users and stealing their hard-earned money through these money scams. They buy stolen or hacked databases that are populated with
the contact details of their intended victims. They convince users to settle
unpaid taxes and the like.
The main similarity of these money scams is that their
emails, private messages and phone calls are laced with fake urgency claims and
scare rhetoric. For example, they trick their target victims into thinking that
they can end up paying exorbitant penalty fees if they don't immediately settle
their unpaid taxes. Some even go to the extreme by scaring victims with jail
time, various legal complications and the like.
- How to Avoid Money Scams
You should always verify the authenticity of the content of
any message or phone call that you receive, especially when it deals with money
and taxes. In addition, you should check the identity of the person who's
telling you to settle your unpaid taxes, especially if they're trying too hard
to convince you to pay up. Keeping these things in mind can help you reduce
your chances of being victimized by similar types of money scams.
Update yourself about the different tactics, schemes and
strategies that are currently being used by scammers and organized crime groups
to carry out their money scams. You'll be able to recognize those tactics and
schemes whenever you encounter potential scams in the form of emails, SMS,
private messages in social media sites and phone calls. This can in turn allow
you to just ignore those messages and just report them to the proper
authorities.
In addition, consider anonymously posting your scam
complaints and Web crime reports against these money scams in online
communities like BigScammers.Com. You'll be able to educate others about the
tax scams that you've encountered, which can in turn help them recognize
potential scams whenever they encounter them during their day-to-day activities
on the Internet. You can sign up at Big Scammers to conveniently receive alerts
and notifications in your email inbox about the most recent forms of fraudulent
tax schemes among other types of online scams today.
