New York State Attorney General Letitia James warned New Yorkers that as more New Yorkers become eligible for vaccinations and a new economic stimulus package is introduced, scammers are trying to impersonate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other federal agencies, claiming to be eligible for Epidemic grants, relief payments, or vaccinations without waiting in line.
Recently, there have been reports of scammers posing as the IRS Rescue Plan Act Dept. and trying to steal personal and financial information through phishing emails, said Jen Lakha. To make the scam more deceptive, the emails may contain an IRS icon and may be confusingly titled, for example, “IRS Rescue Plan Act,” or “Joe Biden Rescue Plan Act. Act,” “IRS Rescue Plan Form,” or “President’s Rescue Plan Act. “President’s Rescue Plan Act.
Scammers will promise to help you and your children get $1,400 in relief and other financial assistance, and others will say they can help you get vaccinated as soon as possible. Currently all New Yorkers over the age of 30 can get the vaccine, and in a week (April 6) eligibility will be relaxed to all New Yorkers over the age of 16, but you still need to make an appointment or wait in line to get the vaccine, so promising to help you skip the line may be a scam.
Jen Leixia describes several tips for identifying scams.
If someone claims to be a government worker with a bailout check or vaccine, it’s likely a phishing email used to scam you in an attempt to illegally obtain your bank account number or other personal information.
Secondly, these emails may have spelling and grammatical errors, so you can tell it is malicious.
Third, unless you have signed up for government notices or email notifications, do not open emails or links claiming to be from government departments, do not click on interfaces such as “Apply Now” or download attachments, otherwise malware from scammers may be downloaded to your computer to steal your personal information including passwords, etc. If If you are not sure about the information, you should delete it immediately.
Fourth, before contacting any email that appears out of the blue and for which you did not send a request, verify the legitimacy of the email, and be especially careful if the email mentions the IRS or COVID-19 in any way. In fact, vaccines require you to initiate the appointment yourself; for relief payments, the IRS will transfer money directly to you or send you a check (debit card), rather than sending you an email.
To file a complaint about fraud, visit the State Attorney General’s Office website at: https://on.ny.gov/3ubgyaD; for more information on preventing epidemic fraud, visit: https://ag.ny.gov/coronavirus.
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