The IRS doesn't initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text messages, or social media channels to request personal or financial information. This includes requests for PIN numbers, passwords, or similar access information for credit cards, banks, or other financial accounts.
Per the IRS Suspicious emails and Identity Theft webpage:
The Internal Revenue Service has issued several recent consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by scammers trying to gain access to consumers’ financial information in order to steal their identity and assets. When identity theft takes place over the Internet, it is called phishing.
Phishing (as in “fishing for information” and “hooking” victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send email messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information that can be used to steal the victims’ identity. Current scams include phony emails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure the victims into the scam by telling them that they are due a tax refund.
The IRS periodically alerts taxpayers to, and maintains a list of, phishing schemes using the IRS name, logo or Web site clone. If you've received an email, phone call or fax claiming to come from the IRS that seemed a little suspicious, you just may find it on this list.
The good news is that you can help shut down these schemes and prevent others from being victimized.
If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, you can relay that email to a new IRS mailbox, phishing@irs.gov.
Follow instructions in the link below for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure that it retains critical elements found in the original e-mail. The IRS can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you send to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites.
Unfortunately, due to the expected volume, the IRS will not be able to acknowledge receipt or respond to you.
Identity theft can be committed through e-mail (phishing) or other means, such as regular mail, fax or telephone, or even by going through someone's trash.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number or other identifying information without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes. Typically, identity thieves use someone’s personal data to empty the victim’s financial accounts, run up charges on the victim’s existing credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim’s name, file fraudulent tax returns or even commit crimes. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years — and their hard-earned money — cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit.
You may receive a call from an IRS employee requesting verification of income and/or withholding information that has been reported to the IRS through other means. This contact may be made through a telephone call or a faxed request.
If you receive a telephone call or a fax from someone claiming to be with the IRS and you are not comfortable providing the information, you should contact our customer service line at 800-829-4933 to verify the validity of the call or fax. You may then contact the IRS employee who requested the information and provide the required information.
The IRS periodically alerts taxpayers to schemes that fraudulently use the IRS name, logo or Web site clone to to gain access to consumers’ financial information in order to steal their identity and assets. The scams may take place through e-mail, fax or phone. The IRS also maintains a list of phishing and other schemes.
For other than phishing schemes, you may report the fraudulent misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property by calling the TIGTA toll-free hotline at 800-366-4484 or visiting the TIGTA website.
Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the webpage or document at the time it is accessed.