Published on Mar 25, 2016
A new scam has been reported in which criminals target international students. The scam consists of someone contacting an international student, claiming to be an IRS or other federal agent, and stating that unless money is paid immediately, the student’s visa will be revoked. In a more specialized version, the caller claims to be from the IRS or from the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Be assured that these are scams. Under no circumstances will a government official contact you with a demand to pay money right there and then, and under no circumstances does any such caller have any connection to or authority over your immigration or visa situation.
There are currently a number of students whose tax returns were handled incorrectly by the IRS and who are anxious about the state of their tax situation. The scam described in the IRS notification below targets this particular population of international students. I want to reiterate that the IRS will not call or e-mail you. They will send you official mail through the Postal Service. Please see information from the Taxpayer Advocate Service below as well as the link to their website with additional details.
From the Taxpayer Advocate Service:
If you receive an email that appears to be from TAP regarding your personal tax information, do not respond. Instead, please forward them to phishing@irs.gov and note that you believe you received an illegitimate email phishing for your personal information."
The URL for this statement is http://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov/news/alert-tax-refund-scam-artists-posing-as-taxpayer-advocacy-panel?category=Tax%20News&taxissue=63 if you want to provide it to your payees so they can see the item at its source.