The number of tax related phishing and malware incidents has exploded this US tax season, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has warned on Thursday. All in all, there has been an increase of nearly 400 percent.
“There were 1,026 incidents reported in January, up from 254 from a year earlier,” they shared. “This year’s 1,389 incidents have already topped the 2014 yearly total of 1,361, and they are halfway to matching the 2015 total of 2,748.”
This year’s tax filing season opened on January 14 and ends on April 18, and according to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, this dramatic jump in these scams comes at its busiest time.
The most noticeable increase was that of emails and messages impersonating the IRS or other persons and entities in the tax industry (e.g. tax software companies, accountants, etc.).
