GREENSBORO, N.C. — If a cop is sitting on the side of the road looking for speeders, you flash your lights to warn other drivers. If there's water on the floor, you alert others to the danger, and if you get a scam letter from the IRS, you tell your neighbors.
"I didn't think I'd be the only one getting it; they didn't single me out of the whole country. They'll try anything. It's amazing how many different scams they have and how realistic they look," said Dominic Robertazzi.
As soon as he figured out that the email was a scam, he alerted his neighbors on the Nextdoor app.
The email he got looks realistic. It has the IRS logo at the top, and the body of the email with the spelled-out instructions has a very clean government look to it.
Dominic didn't know it was a scam until he hit the button at the bottom of the email to sign into his account.
"It was odd it didn't have my name on it. When I clicked on the second part, it asked for my name, address, and Social Security number, and I figured the IRS should have all that; why are you asking me," said Robertazzi.
He was right to question it and think something wasn't right there. The IRS will never contact you out of the blue. The IRS does not call or email you, it uses a letter in the mail.
Even if you think it's real, take a minute to really look at the letter. When I took a few minutes, I picked up on the email that talked about the 2024 form 1040. Those don't exist yet; you're filling out your 2023 tax forms right now.