The U.S. Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Pennsylvania released the below information:
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William
M. McSwain warned the public today about potential scams relating to the
upcoming coronavirus economic impact payments, commonly referred to as stimulus
checks.
The Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was signed into law on March 27,
2020. Under the CARES Act, millions of Americans will start to receive economic
impact payments from the federal government in the upcoming weeks. In most
cases, this one-time direct payment will be delivered by the Treasury
Department and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to individual taxpayers
primarily through direct deposit. Despite safeguards in place to protect these
payments, fraudsters will undoubtedly attempt to exploit the current situation
to steal individuals’ personal and financial information through a variety of
ways, including phishing emails, social media, robocalls, and text messaging.
“It is paramount that
we get this much-needed money safely into the hands of Americans in order to
ease some of the pain from the pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney McSwain. “The
unfortunate reality is that no matter what is going on in the world, fraudsters
will look for opportunities to steal. But anybody who tries to take advantage
of the pandemic in this manner will feel the full weight of federal law
enforcement.”
“Unfortunately, there
are fraudsters out there who will attempt to victimize vulnerable people during
these trying times,” said Michael Montanez, Acting Special Agent in Charge of
the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Philadelphia Field Office.
“Everyone should be wary of swindlers trying to steal their COVID-19 Economic
Impact Payment, as well as crooked individuals trying to take advantage of the
crisis by tricking people into unnecessarily turning over their personal,
sensitive information. All Americans should be cautious in this regard and it
is asked that everyone also be on the lookout for the interests of the elderly
and other susceptible family members and friends.”
Below are tips for how
to spot and avoid scams:
What Fraudsters May Do:
·
Ask
taxpayers to sign over an economic impact payment.
·
Ask
by phone, email, text message, or social media for verification of personal
and/or banking information for the purposes of expediting a person’s economic
impact payment.
·
Mail
taxpayers bogus checks with contact information (such as a phone number or web
address) regarding how the taxpayer can cash the check.
How to Avoid Scams:
·
Don’t provide personal or financial
information to strangers.
Never provide an unknown individual with personal or financial information
until you have verified the identity of the person with whom you are speaking.
·
Don’t open or click on unusual links or
attachments. If you
receive unexpected emails, text messages, or social media messages with
attachments or website links, delete them. Do not click on, download, or open
any of the above, as you may be opening malware on your electronic device that
can help criminals steal your information.
·
Checks are deposited automatically. Remember that in most cases, the IRS
is using direct deposit to send the economic impact payments. Thus, if anyone
is asking you for personal information in any manner, you should be wary and
seek additional information to verify the person’s identity and employment.
·
There are no fees to receive payment. The government is not asking citizens
to pay anything up front to receive an economic impact payment. If someone
contacts you asking for any form of payment in order to receive an economic
impact payment, please contact law enforcement.
If you or someone you
know has been the target or victim of a fraud scheme related to the
coronavirus, please report the incident to the national hotline at The National
Center for Disaster Fraud at 1-866-720-5721 or at disaster@leo.gov.
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