The April 15 tax deadline is days away — and scammers are making the most of it.

The Better Business Bureau and ABC7 Chicago issued a combined warning Thursday about a surge in tax-related fraud. The key point: even if you’ve already filed your return, you’re still a target.

Three Tax Scams to Watch Right Now

1. Fake IRS Texts and Emails

Scammers are sending texts and emails claiming there’s a problem with your tax return and asking you to verify your information by clicking a link. The message looks urgent. The link leads to a phishing site that steals your credentials or personal information.

The IRS will never contact you by text or email about your return. If you get a message like this, it’s a scam. Delete it.

These messages have become significantly more sophisticated in 2026. They incorporate IRS logos, formatting that mirrors official government communications, and personalized details harvested from previous data breaches. Some campaigns even reference legitimate IRS programs or recent tax code changes to appear authentic. If the message already knows your name, your tax software, or the approximate size of your refund, that doesn’t mean it’s real — it means the scammer has access to data about you.

2. Spoofed IRS Agent Calls

Phone calls from people posing as IRS agents — threatening arrest, deportation, or legal action unless you wire money immediately — are spiking ahead of the deadline. The calls often come from spoofed numbers that look like real IRS lines.

The IRS never:

  • Calls to demand immediate payment
  • Requires a specific payment method like gift cards or wire transfer
  • Threatens to send law enforcement for non-payment without prior written notice

In 2026, these calls are increasingly difficult to detect because scammers are using AI voice cloning technology to generate natural-sounding voices with no foreign accent, no robotic cadence, and no obvious tells. The FTC issued a warning in January 2026 specifically about this escalation: callers are now offering to connect victims with “tax resolution officers” who can perform fake “red flag checks” and enroll them in fictional “IRS liability reduction programs.” These programs do not exist.

3. Ghost Tax Preparers

Ghost preparers offer suspiciously good deals, promise unusually large refunds, and then disappear when something goes wrong. In the worst cases, they file your return and redirect your refund to their own bank account.

Always verify a tax preparer’s credentials. Legitimate preparers are required to have a current Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) — check the IRS PTIN Directory before signing anything.

Ghost preparers have increasingly moved online, advertising through social media, local community forums, and even door-to-door solicitation. Some offer “guaranteed” refunds or claim special relationships with the IRS that allow them to secure larger returns. Neither claim is real. No preparer can “guarantee” a specific refund amount, and the IRS does not provide special access to any tax preparation service.

The Numbers Behind This Year’s Surge

The scale of tax-related fraud in 2026 is not hypothetical. Americans lost over $1.3 billion to imposter scams in the most recently reported full year, with IRS and government impersonation schemes driving a significant portion of that total. The IRS has ranked phishing and impersonation as the #1 threat on their annual “Dirty Dozen” scams list every year — and 2026 is no exception.

Google’s Eugene Liderman, director of product management for Android security and privacy, captured why this year is different:

“It’s not just the traditional ‘hey, this is the IRS.’ Now you’re seeing it with tax preparers, people offering a really good deal. With various data breaches, they might already know what software you’re using — so it could be very tailored towards you.”

Data breaches have given scammers enough personal information to craft messages that feel eerily specific. A phishing email that already knows your name, address, and which tax software you use is harder to dismiss than a generic one. The personalization is intentional — it’s designed to neutralize skepticism before it can form.

For the full picture on the 2026 tax scam landscape: Tax Season 2026 Scam Alert: The Complete Guide to Protecting Yourself From IRS Imposters, AI Voice Cloning, and Refund Theft

Why You’re Still a Target After Filing

The “I’ve already filed” assumption is a gap that scammers actively exploit.

Refund theft. Even after filing, a scammer who has your personal information can potentially file an amended return or intercept your refund through account modification attacks.

Post-filing phishing. “Your return is under review” or “there’s a problem with your filing” messages arrive after filing because they feel relevant to people who have just completed a tax return. The timing is deliberate.

Identity theft for next year. Tax season is the most active period for gathering the specific combination of data needed for identity theft: Social Security numbers, income figures, and financial account information all flow through tax processes, and scammers try to intercept any piece of that chain.

Ghost preparer follow-up. If you used a questionable preparer, the weeks after filing are when problems tend to emerge — either because the refund goes to the wrong account, or because the IRS flags fabricated deductions. Scammers who positioned themselves as preparers count on the delayed discovery.

Related reading: IRS Scams Are Evolving: The 5 Tax Season Tricks That Will Fool Even Smart People in 2026

The Illinois Context

Chicago and the surrounding Illinois suburbs have seen an unusual concentration of tax and government impersonation activity this season. Parallel to the tax scams:

  • Will County has been dealing with callers impersonating sheriff’s deputies demanding gift card payments for fake bonds
  • Cook County reported fake court notice letters arriving by mail
  • Vernon Hills police warned of fake “hearing notices” delivered by text message
  • The Illinois Secretary of State’s office issued a March warning that scammers have “escalated their tactics” with increasingly official-looking texts

These are different scams with a common architecture: manufactured urgency, government authority impersonation, and payment methods that can’t be reversed. Tax season provides scammers with a contextually relevant hook that makes their government impersonation more plausible.

What the IRS Actually Does (And Doesn’t Do)

The IRS communication rules are worth memorizing, because they draw a clean line between what’s real and what’s fraud:

The IRS will:

  • Send written notices by U.S. mail for significant issues
  • Provide written documentation of any amount owed, with the tax year and specific breakdown
  • Give you time to respond, appeal, or dispute
  • Accept payment through official channels: IRS.gov, authorized payment processors, or mailed checks payable to the U.S. Treasury

The IRS will never:

  • Call you out of the blue demanding immediate payment
  • Text or email you about a return problem (the IRS does not initiate contact this way)
  • Demand payment via gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfer, or prepaid debit cards
  • Threaten arrest if you don’t pay immediately on the call
  • Ask you to keep a tax issue confidential from family members

If you receive a call that violates any of these rules, you’re talking to a scammer — regardless of how official the caller sounds.

Related reading: Tax Season 2026: The Scam That Kills Your Security Software — on why this year’s attackers are targeting more than just your refund

How to Protect Yourself

  • Ignore unsolicited texts and emails claiming to be the IRS — they’re always fake
  • Hang up on threatening callers claiming to be IRS agents demanding immediate payment
  • Verify your preparer has a valid PTIN before handing over any documents or signing anything
  • Use your phone’s built-in scam detection — both Android and iOS have spam call screening tools that have improved significantly in recent years
  • Set up an IRS Online Account at irs.gov — this lets you see exactly what’s on your tax record, which makes it easy to verify or dismiss any claim someone makes about what you owe
  • If something feels off, go directly to irs.gov and verify your account status there rather than engaging with an inbound contact

If You’ve Been Targeted

Report it immediately:

If you used a ghost preparer and suspect your refund has been redirected, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040 and report the preparer to the IRS Return Preparer Complaint tool at irs.gov/PRC.

Stay ahead of tax scams and all fraud threats at ScamWatch HQ.