Tax Season Is Scammer Season: What You Need to Know

Trust is the thing scammers exploit most—and tax season hands it to them on a silver platter. In this episode of SipCyber, Jen Lotze visits The Mixing Jug, a hidden courtyard gem in Marlow, England, and draws a powerful parallel between the quiet trust of a neighborhood coffee shop and the misplaced trust that costs people thousands every April. 

When your inbox is already flooded with W2s, refund notices, and filing deadlines, a convincing phishing email doesn't feel like a threat—it feels expected. That's exactly how scammers want it. From fake IRS emails demanding identity verification to fraudulent tax documents loaded with malware, these attacks are timed precisely for the moment your guard is down. 

Key Topics Covered: 

• The three most common tax season scams hitting inboxes right now 
• Why the IRS will never email, text, or DM you—ever 
• How to spot a spoofed sender address before it's too late 
• What to do if you receive a suspicious "IRS" message 
• Simple verification habits that stop tax phishing cold 

The IRS doesn't do urgency. Scammers do. If a message is pressuring you to act fast, that's your first red flag. 

☕ Featured Spot: The Mixing Jug, Marlow, England 

Before you click anything this tax season—pause. Subscribe for weekly cybersecurity tips delivered from coffee shops across the country, and share this with someone who could use a reminder before April. 

#CyberSecurity #TaxScams #IRSScam #Phishing #IdentityTheft #TaxSeason #ScamAwareness #CyberSafety #InfoSec #SipCyber #DigitalSafety #PhishingAlert #CyberAwareness 

Transcript

Jen Lotze 0:04

Hey there, coffee lovers and internet explorers. Welcome back to Sip Cyber. The podcast is on a quest for two things, the perfect cup of coffee, or in today's case, smoothie, and the simplest way to keep your digital life safe. Sometimes a place makes you slow down without even trying. That happened to me recently in the town of Marlowe, outside of London, in England. I was there for a friend's wedding, and one day I wandered down a narrow alley that looked like nothing more than a walkway between buildings. Then the space opened up. A small courtyard appeared almost like a hidden room in the middle of town. And right there in the middle of all of it was a little place called the mixing jug, juice and coffee. Tables were scattered all around the courtyard. People sat with coffee, juice, smoothies, pastries. But something else stood out almost immediately. No laptops, very few phones. People were just talking to each other, laughing, listening, taking their time. It felt like stepping into a pocket of calm and sitting there with my smoothie, watching conversations happen all around me, I started thinking about something we don't talk about very often. How much trust shapes the small moments in our lives. When you order a coffee, you trust the person behind the counter knows what they're doing. When you take a sip, you trust the drink is exactly what it looks like. Places like that courtyard run on quiet assumptions that everything is what it says it is. Trust that builds slowly. But in our digital lives, trust often shows up instantly. A message appears, a logo looks familiar, a link looks official. And most of us assume it must be real. That moment of instant trust is exactly what scammers look for. And there's one time of year when people, when they know people are especially distracted, tax season. This time of year brings a lot of messages about taxes. W 2 forms, refund notifications, filing deadlines, payroll reminders. So when an email or text message appears to be claiming from the IRS, it doesn't always feel unusual. It feels expected. And that expectation is exactly what scammers rely on. Some of the most common tax scams look like this: an email arrives saying there's a problem with your tax refund and you need to click a link to verify your identity. A message shows up claiming to be an updated W-2 or tax document as an attachment. A phone call warns you that you owe money immediately and threatens penalties if you don't act right away. The details change, but the pattern is always the same: urgency, pressure, fear. A moment where someone hopes you react before you pause and think. But here are a few important things to remember. The IRS does not text you asking for personal information. The IRS does not email you asking for Social Security numbers through links or attachments. And the IRS does not demand immediate payment through phone calls core text messages. There's another part of tax fraud that surprises a lot of people. Sometimes criminals use stolen Social Security numbers to file fake tax returns before the real taxpayer even files. They claim the refund, and by the time the real return is submitted, the system may already show a return on file. Untangling that situation can often take months. But there is a simple step that can make that much harder for scammers. You can create an IRS identity protection pin. An IP pin is a six-digit number that only you and the IRS know. When your tax return is filed, that number has to be included with it. Without it, the tax return is rejected. Even if someone has your social security number, setting up one of these takes only a few minutes. Open up your browser and go directly to IRS.gov. Search for Get an IP PIN. You'll create or sign into your IRS account, verify your identity, and the IRS will generate your personal six-digit PIN. You'll use that number each year when you file your taxes. A few minutes today can prevent a problem that might otherwise take months, sometimes years to fix. Now let's circle back to that courtyard at the mixing jug for a moment. The thing that stayed with me most about that place wasn't just the coffee. It was the pace. Nobody was rushing. People were taking their time with their conversations, their drinks, and the people sitting across from them. And maybe that's one of the best cybersecurity habits we can borrow from places like that. Slow down. Because scammers depend on that sense of urgency. They count on the moment when we react before we think. But security often begins with a pause. Thanks for joining me on this trip to the Mixing Jug Juice and Coffee in Marlowe and for taking a small step to secure your digital life. Until then, stay safe and keep sipping.