They often pretend to give assistance in signing up for the child tax credit or they offer to speed up the monthly payments. The scammers are reaching out to families via text message, email, social media and phone calls.
“Do not click on links or open attachments from senders that you don't know”, says Corinne Kalvem, an IRS investigator. “And IRS is not going to send you something our with a link you need to click on.”
The IRS says they will only reach out to people in written correspondence. They do not leave pre-recorded or threatening voicemails and they will not call taxpayers to ask them to verify information. Additionally, there is no need to sign up for the tax credit. The IRS uses your 2019 and 2020 tax returns to determine if you are eligible for the credit.
These scams often result in money loss, tax-related fraud, and identity theft. If you’re unsure if a correspondence from the IRS is real or not, visit IRS.gov and look at their child tax credit tab.
