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Incident 991: Alleged AI-Generated IRS Scam Websites Used to Defraud U.S. Taxpayers

Description: Scammers have allegedly been using AI-generated imposter websites and phishing emails to impersonate the IRS. They have reportedly been tricking taxpayers into providing personal and financial information. There has been a reported surge in tax-related AI scams leading up to Tax Day 2025, with fraudulent domains mimicking IRS services, along with fake websites, emails, and text messages. The IRS has warned taxpayers to verify official sites and avoid unsolicited links.

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Alleged: Unknown generative AI developers , Black-box AI developers and Generative AI fraud tools developed an AI system deployed by Phishers , Scammers impersonating the IRS , Cyber criminals and Unknown scammers, which harmed Taxpayers in the United States , General public of the United States , U.S. citizens , Identity theft victims and IRS.
Alleged implicated AI systems: AI-powered phishing kits and SMS phishing networks

Incident Stats

Incident ID
991
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2025-03-14
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

4.3. Fraud, scams, and targeted manipulation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Malicious Actors & Misuse

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Intentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
Scammers using AI to create fake IRS sites. Here's other scams to watch out for.
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Scammers using AI to create fake IRS sites. Here's other scams to watch out for.

Scammers using AI to create fake IRS sites. Here's other scams to watch out for.

cbsnews.com

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Scammers using AI to create fake IRS sites. Here's other scams to watch out for.
cbsnews.com · 2025

Cybersecurity experts expect a significant surge in tax-related scams in the final month before Tax Day.

Security software company DNSFilter found that traffic to malicious domains with "tax" in the name peaked 30 days before Tax Day in 202…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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