With the IRS tax filing deadline less than a week away, cybersecurity experts warn that scammers are using AI to create convincing attacks.
With the Internal Revenue Service tax filing deadline less than a week away, cybersecurity expert s are warning about the ways scammers are using artificial intelligence to target taxpayers.The tax filing season is filled with stress, financial pressure, and deadlines.
For years, scammers have used that time to target and take advantage of vulnerable taxpayers.Cyber-enabled crimes defrauded more than 1 million Americans out of nearly $21 billion, according to the FBI's 2025 Internet Crime Report released on Monday. Cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence-related complaints ranked among the costliest.Now, thieves are scaling their operations with AI to make them better, faster and cheaper, says Cliff Steinhauer, the director of information security and engagement at the National Cybersecurity Alliance.'And they can really scale this up in a way that hasn't been done before,' Steinhauer said. 'So, people are going to see more scams, more frequent messaging, and more people are going to be targeted.'In the near future, attacks are likely to become a lot more personalized and more convincing, Steinhauer said. Voice clones, deepfake social profiles, and believable videos depicting public figures and loved ones are targeting Americans, according to the FBI.'It's going to say your name, it's going to be having information that you think only the government would have about you,' Steinhauer said. 'But the reality is, that most of us have had our data lost through existing data breaches.'Scammers may sift through online information from sources like Facebook, LinkedIn, and data leaks to make their messages look real and urgent.Scammers will impersonate the IRS by phone, text, and email, trying to rope people in with different setups such as getting refunds faster, avoiding taxes, or extending tax filing deadlines. Experts warn that even if these communications look official, chances are they aren't. Scammers can spoof numbers, use look-alike emails, and may even threaten you to act fast.'So, attackers will use all sorts of lures and bait to try to get you to call them and try to get you to interact with the scammer instead of obviously, the real IRS,' Steinhauer said. 'But the key is that any kind of inbound communication, so whether that's a phone call, a text message, an email, simply cannot be trusted.'The IRS will rarely call you out of the blue; most of the time the agency will contact you the first time by mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.If you receive a message that appears real, the FBI urges everyone to 'Take a Beat' to identify red flags of a potential scam. The IRS has even made a 2026 dirty dozen list, with 12 key scams to watch for.If a message appears to come from the IRS, it's best to verify yourself by visiting the IRS' official website.
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