April is tax month, though for many of us that little chore is now history. But April is also Financial Literary Month, and the Atlanta Field Office of the IRS Criminal Investigation unit is using the time to shed light on imposter scams.

Imposter scams were the No. 1 top fraud category in 2023, the Federal Trade Commission reports — which is why the IRS is getting involved. With tax season, scammers posing as IRS personnel are working overtime, vastly increasing their call volume to potential victims while the getting is good — for the scammers.

This is why agents from the field office remind us that the IRS will not call taxpayers to demand an immediate payment. Also, the agency will not call about taxes owed at all without first sending the person a bill.

But phone calls are only one way scammers operate. In addition to those calls, scams involving the impersonation of the IRS usually take the form of e-mails, tweets or other online messages to taxpayers. The FTC released data in February 2024 showing that consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud last year. According to the FTC, imposter scams lost victims $2.7 billion to criminals.

Taxpayers are advised to follow the tips should they be contacted by a suspected scammer:

Phone calls

• Do not give out any information. Hang up immediately.

•Contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the IRS impersonation scam call.

• Report the caller ID and callback number to the IRS by sending it to phishing@irs.gov. The subject line should include “IRS Phone Scam.”

• Report the call to the Federal Trade Commission.

Receiving emails claiming to be from the IRS

• Don’t reply.

• Don’t open any attachments. They can contain malicious code that may infect your computer or mobile phone.

• Don’t click on any links.

• Send the full email headers or forward the email as-is to phishing@irs.gov. Don’t forward screenshots or scanned images of emails because this removes valuable information.

• Delete the original email.

CI is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code. The Atlanta Field Office covers the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

If you feel you’ve been involved in a scam, don’t hesitate … reach out. Email the Atlanta Field Office at atlantafieldoffice@ci.irs.gov.