How to protect your tax refund from scammers

Where’s my refund? If you’re not careful, it could end up in the hands of scammers. WINK News looked at how you can keep your money safe.

Tax season is big money. Last year, the IRS refunded almost $325 billion. With that much money around, it’s a landscape ripe for scammers.

A new version of the IRS scam is the tax preparer scam. This is when a tax preparation service guarantees you a refund without ever seeing your W2 or other documents. That kind of practice is illegal.

“They’re going to manipulate those tax returns to get you the refund,” said Lieutenant Chad Parker, with Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s financial crimes bureau. “But eventually you’re gonna get audited by the IRS because what they’re doing is manipulating the numbers, and it’s not gonna be legit. And by the time you realize when you get audited that the numbers were manipulated, that tax is gone, long gone.”

If you hear this promise, you know it’s a scam. To protect yourself, only use a licensed tax preparer. Report suspicious preparers to the IRS or law enforcement.

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• IRS: Search for tax return preparers
• IRS: Tax scams/ consumer alerts