More scammers

[Arthur Rubin]

In addition to calls "from the IRS", other scams have been brought to my attention recently. (I don't know of any calls "from the IRS" directed to tax preparers.

Phony tax preparers phishing for personal information from clients. (The payload is obvious; you need the SSN and birthdate in order to prepare tax returns.)

Phony clients phishing for tax preparer information. The payload here is more complicated; the "client" sends a PDF file with some tax information, but the PDF has a program embedded in it, which recovers the tax preparer's contact list, and (if the program is sufficiently elaborate) client list, and passes it along to the scammer.

Also phony software vendors claiming the preparers' software needs to be updated..... I haven't heard of this specifically directed to tax preparers, but the PTIN list is publicly available and has the tax preparers' names, mailing addresses, and Email addresses. I receive enough junk Emails from real software vendors that I'm not sure I'd notice phony ones.

I don't know if these are common in countries other than the United States.