As if the phone calls weren't enough, these clowns seem to be entering the "operation blitzspam" stage of their plan:
The IRS said it has seen an increase in reported phishing and malware schemes, including 1,026 incidents reported in January, up from 254 from a year earlier.
The trend continued in February, nearly doubling the reported number of incidents compared to a year ago. In all, 363 incidents were reported from Feb. 1-16, compared to the 201 incidents reported for the entire month of February 2015. This year's 1,389 incidents have already topped the 2014 yearly total of 1,361, according to the IRS, and they are halfway to matching the 2015 total of 2,748.
“This dramatic jump in these scams comes at the busiest time of tax season,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a statement. “Watch out for fraudsters slipping these official-looking emails into inboxes, trying to confuse people at the very time they work on their taxes. We urge people not to click on these emails.”
Perhaps if some of you aren't too busy, you can establish an accountant consortium to bring these scofflaws to justice. I'm sure your firms would figure out a time code for it.
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Image: iStock/weerapatkiatdumrong
