Tax refunds are often a financial boost for Americans, but they’ve increasingly become the target of scammers who can use your identity to recover whatever money is owed by Uncle Sam.
Last year, the IRS received 294,138 complaints of reported identity theft, the second most in its history. The most was 328,591 in 2021, which reflects the massive surge of cybercrime that spiked in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In order to process your tax return, the IRS asks for some personal information to verify your identity, including your home address and Social Security number. In an ideal world, no malicious actors would have that information. Unfortunately, there are more data breaches almost every year, and the online cybercrime ecosystem is rife with criminals who trade and sell Americans’ data.