Banking Safety

The IRS, state tax agencies, and tax industry officials provided warning that a new scam has surfaced recently. Created by thieves, this messages purpose is to trick individuals into disclosing bank account information under the guise of receiving their Economic Impact Payment. These criminals are tirelessly using COVID-19 and Economic Impact Payments as a cover to trick people out of money or their identities. This recent scam is a variation on others that have been seen throughout this year.

People have received texts that state:

"You have received a direct deposit of $1,200 from COVID-19 TREAS FUND. Further action is required to accept this payment into your account. Continue here to accept this payment …"

This message usually includes a link to a fake phishing website. It is important to use caution when receiving texts from unknown numbers and to never follow any links provided as this could compromise your mobile device and your information.

People who receive this text scam should take a screen shot of the text message that they received and then include the screenshot in an email to [email protected] with the following information:

• Date/Time/Timezone that they received the text message
• The number that appeared on their Caller ID
• The number that received the text message

Read more about the news update on text message scams at the IRS website.