Fraudulent letters disguising as the US IRS have been trying to illegally acquire money from crypto taxpayers.

Reported by Forbes on August 5, scam letters, which comes with certified IRS correspondence and soliciting payments, are taking advantage of the general audience’ lack of familiarity to steal their funds, by employing numerous methods, including threatening the victims with legal actions.

Besides from law enforcement threats, the criminals also send emails notifying victims that, because of their inability to fulfill tax obligations, a warrant has been issued to claim their funds. Should immediate payment requirement not met, negative legal consequences may happen, including criminal action or arrest.

A few scam tactics target the real sum of tax owed by the victims, nominally liens filed against them. However, Forbes revealed that, all information associated with tax liens can be publicly viewed or accessible, which cancels out all reasons to fall victims to such letters.

One scam reportedly notified taxpayers of their unfulfilled obligations with “Bureau of Tax Enforcement” – a non-existing tax agency,

Phone calls asking taxpayers to pay their due is another strategy involved, which is not a proper IRS way of notifying people. IRS will also not threatens to arrest or deports people who failed to pay taxes, by any means.

In an attempt to help taxpayers avoid said scams, a list of signs to check the genuity of the IRS letters have been issued by Forbes. 

Anotice or letter number, use of a government envelope and IRS seal, a 1-800 IRS contact number, a note of the recipient’s truncated tax ID number and tax years in question are all the characteristics of an authentic IRS letter. 

The scams appeared simultaneously with IRS’ effort to send out letters asking for tax filings, and requesting taxpayers to complete their debts.