IRS refund and "unpaid tax" messages
A refund you are "eligible" for, or a tax debt with a threat, by email, text or phone. The IRS states it does not initiate contact by email, text or social media to request personal or financial information.
- Impersonates
- IRS
- Arrives by
- email, SMS, phone call
- First seen
- not dated
- Specimens
- 0
- Updated
- 2026-09-02
Right now what this family looks like
How to recognise it
- First contact by email or text — the IRS starts with a letter
- A link to "claim" a refund or a demand for gift cards
- Threats of arrest on the phone
What to do
- Do not reply or click; forward the email to phishing@irs.gov
- Check your account only on irs.gov, typed by hand
- Delete it
Already called, clicked or paid? what to do in the next hour
- Entered a password? Change it now, and everywhere else you used the same one
- Entered card details? Call your bank, ask them to block the card and reissue
- Entered a one-time code? Sign in to the real service now and check for changes to email, phone and payment settings
How it changed
nothing to compare yet · no specimen on recordGot a version? A new subject line, sender, number or domain becomes the next point on this line. Redacted before publication. Send it →
02 Sept2026
Registry
Family created
Opened at launch from the IRS's own alerts; no dated specimen on record yet — send yours.
Same trick, other brands
- Canada Revenue Agency refund and e-Transfer scamsarchived · 2026-09
- HMRC tax rebate texts and emailsactive · 2026-09
Indicators
- None on record yet. Indicators change weekly; an empty list never means an email is safe.
In other streams
- Nothing yet.
Registry data
- Machine-readable
/scams/irs-tax-refund.json- Timeline feed
/scams/irs-tax-refund/feed.xml- Sources
- 1 · 1 change logged
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0 · attribution required
- Created / updated
- 2026-09-02 / 2026-09-02