That was Then... This is Now

April 18th is Tax Day! Time to be on the lookout for scammers who want to trick you into giving out your personal information and taking your money. Since late last year, you might have noticed an increase in calls, emails, or texts from people posing as government officials or tax service representatives. According to research from RoboKiller, there was a 24% increase in IRS and Social Security related spam text messages between January and February. Some of the increase can be traced back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as scammers got more aggressive in taking advantage of people trapped at home or receiving unemployment benefits. Anyone can become a target of a tax scam if they don't pay close attention to the messages they receive over the phone. Kim Key writing in PCMag this week discussed this year’s particularly bad phishing epidemic with Giulia Porter, a vice president at Teltech. Her company makes an app called RoboKiller, designed to block spam calls. Porter sa