Avoid COVID-19 Scams

The Indiana State Police released the following news bulletin yesterday on scams:
With the forthcoming economic impact payments (commonly referred to as stimulus checks), there will undoubtedly be those who will attempt to take advantage of the situation. Scammers and swindlers will stop at nothing in an attempt to steal others' money...Don't let them fool you! Here are a few facts from the Internal Revenue Service every Hoosier should know: 

- On March 30th, The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced that the distribution of economic impact payments should begin over the next three weeks. The checks and will be distributed automatically, with no action required for most people. However, some taxpayers who typically do not file returns will need to submit a simple tax return to receive the economic impact payment.

- For those who have already filed their 2019 tax returns, the IRS will use this information to calculate the payment amount. For anyone who has not yet filed their return for 2019, the IRS will use data from their 2018 tax filing to calculate the payment. The economic impact payment will be deposited directly into the same banking account reflected on the return filed.

Don't give scammers, swindlers, and frauds an open door. The IRS will not contact you via telephone or email asking for any personal information. All stimulus check information will be automatically gathered by the IRS from your actual tax return data. 

For more information and to read for yourself, please visit the IRS coronavirus website for more details:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/economic-impact-payments-what-you-need-to-know

A Message from the Office of the Attorney General of Indiana
The Office of the Attorney General was recently made aware of two phishing attempts aimed at Hoosiers.
One was a fake email pretending to be from Amazon that attempted to get recipients to provide financial information. The other was a message to church members that appeared to come from their pastor, but actually contained malware.

While annoying and, more importantly, dangerous, these scams are preventable.
Read more about these phishing attempts and how you can avoid similar scams here on the Attorney General's website.

(source: Congressman Jim Banks, Indiana's Third District)