• Don’t give personal information out to anyone attempting to contact you unless you have initiated the contact or you are sure you know who you are dealing with. (Examples: email, phone, social media). Any IRS contact with you will always be by mail first.
  
  
• The IRS would never ask you to pay for anything with any type of a gift card (Examples: iTunes gift cards, Green Dot Prepaid Cards, MoneyPak Prepaid Cards, Amazon cards, Reloadit Prepaid Debit Cards, and other prepaid credit cards). No legitimate United States Treasury or IRS official will demand payments via Western Union, MoneyGram, bank wire transfers, or bank deposits be made into another person’s account for any debt to the IRS or Treasury.
  
  
• If you haven’t received your tax information (W-2, property tax information etc.) by mail or from your employer contact the sender immediately to follow-up and make sure it hasn’t been stolen.

Other miscellaneous tips

• Check your credit report every 12 months.
• Secure personal information in your home.
• Protect your personal computers by using firewalls, anti-spam/virus software, update security patches and change passwords for Internet accounts.