Increasingly, individuals are being harassed by scammers by various means, including phone calls, text messages, emails, and letters. You have likely been the target of a scam recently asking you to send money, to provide personal or financial information related to a fake “IRS case number,” to respond to “legal process about to be filed,” or to appear at court for jury service.

To protect yourself from scammers, always double-check and ensure that any communications are authentic and from official sources. Email addresses and telephone numbers are easily disguised or “spoofed” to make them appear to come from a legitimate source.

If you have any doubt whether a communication is legitimate and from an authentic source, then you must be vigilant and take additional steps to protect yourself.

If communicating by telephone, you can:

end the call yourself and
initiate a new phone call to a known, official phone number.

If communicating by email, you can:

ensure you are using a known, official email address and
initiate a new email yourself instead of responding to the initial communication.

If you are the target of a scam, you can report it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to formally document the complaint.

If you receive fraudulent documents by mail, a Mail Fraud Complaint may be filed with the United States Postal Inspection Service.