IR-2015-114: IRS Warns Consumers of Possible Scams Relating to South Carolina Flood Victim Relief
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent this bulletin at 10/09/2015 10:05 AM EDT
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Issue Number: IR-2015-114Inside This IssueIRS Warns Consumers of Possible Scams Relating to South Carolina Flood Victim Relief WASHINGTON ― The Internal Revenue Service today issued a consumer alert about possible fake charity scams emerging due to severe flooding this month in South Carolina and neighboring states. "When making donations to assist flood victims in South Carolina and elsewhere, taxpayers should take steps to ensure their hard-earned money goes to legitimate and currently eligible charities,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “IRS.gov has the tools taxpayers need to check out the status of charitable organizations.” Following major disasters, it is common for scam artists to impersonate charities to get money or private information from well-intentioned taxpayers. Such fraudulent schemes may involve contact by telephone, social media, email or in-person solicitations. The IRS cautions people wishing to make disaster-related charitable donations to avoid scam artists by following these tips:
Bogus websites may solicit funds for disaster victims. Such fraudulent sites frequently mimic the sites of, or use names similar to, legitimate charities, or claim to be affiliated with legitimate charities in order to persuade members of the public to send money or provide personal financial information that can be used to steal identities or financial resources. Additionally, scammers often send email that steers the recipient to bogus websites that appear to be affiliated with legitimate charitable causes. Taxpayers suspecting disaster-related frauds by email should visit IRS.gov and search for the keywords “Report Phishing.” More information about tax scams and schemes may be found at IRS.gov using the keywords “scams and schemes.” Thank you for subscribing to the IRS Newswire, an IRS e-mail service. If you know someone who might want to subscribe to this mailing list, please forward this message to them so they can subscribe. This message was distributed automatically from the mailing list IRS Newswire. Please Do Not Reply To This Message. |