Mitchell Kaminski
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
As Tax Day approaches, experts are warning about a rise in scams, with scammers exploiting deadline pressure and new technology to trick victims.
According to an analysis by the Better Business Bureau Scam Tracker, tax scams resulted in more than $5.7 million in reported losses in 2025. While only about 13% of cases involved financial losses, the average loss per victim topped $32,000.
MJ Awwadi, owner of Right at Home Central Missouri, said scammers often target seniors, especially during tax season.
“They usually pressure seniors to pay and acquire an immediate payment for the seniors. And sometimes we instruct our caregivers to monitor for any signs of any calls from the scammers and to help out the seniors to avoid those scams,” Awwadi said.
Caregivers at Right at Home often help seniors identify suspicious calls, emails and payment requests. Awwadi said many scams now happen over the phone.
“The most common types we are seeing now it’s over the phone. Scammers know seniors are under extra pressure around tax time. They use what we call ‘Fear Factor.’ They scare people into acting fast before they think clearly,” Awwadi said.
He encourages families to watch for warning signs.
“I would encourage the adult children, for the seniors, to look for parents who suddenly seem stressed, hide emails or mention the need to buy a gift card for officials. Also watch if they are getting lost or unexpected calls,” Awwadi said.
However, experts say scams are not just limited to older adults.
Khesha Duncan, regional director for the Better Business Bureau, said advances in technology have made scams more convincing and more widespread.
“They wait for a particular season or time of year to decide they’re going to strike because they figure people are more emotional,” Duncan said. “However, they are getting better at it because of the technology. AI of course, spoofing websites, making fake websites that look really believable. And if you’re not careful, you can be fooled.”
Because of the new technology being deployed by scammers, Duncan says younger people are now just as susceptible to scams.
“There used to be a time when seniors were scammed more or at least perceived to be for a lot of them. The truth of the matter is, again, because of the technology, it’s really interesting, the data we’ve found has kind of caught up in terms of age. It really doesn’t matter,” Duncan said. “The seniors are sometimes more likely to get scammed because of not having as much familiarity with computers, the Internet, what have you, or they just don’t like it. So they don’t pay as close attention. But with the younger people, they’re digital natives. They’ve always been on computers and plugged in and connected, and so they will sometimes think something is real or legitimate or believable simply because so much of what they do that is legitimate is on a device.”
Scammers are also expanding how they reach victims.
“They’ve really dialed up the phishing scams via text and on social media platforms where they’ll pop up with a message or an ad saying, big tax refund, click here or I can prepare your taxes in one day or whatever the case may be,” Duncan said. “They’re getting your attention with some sort of urgent message or call to action, something that sounds like it’s good, but if something sounds too good to be true, as we know it usually is.”
Experts say one of the most important steps is slowing down and verifying information.
“The best way to approach it, as with any scam, is to put yourself in the driver’s seat. If you get a weird text message or email, particularly one with links or attachments that they’re trying to get you to open, delete those if you get a phone call that sounds like it’s somebody from the IRS, because some of these scammers are really sophisticated. They’ll go so far as to have a fake badge number or something to make the caller believe or make the person that they’re calling believe that they’re legitimate,” Duncan said.
Duncan emphasized that the Internal Revenue Service will not contact taxpayers through unsolicited calls, texts or emails.
“The IRS is not going to reach out to you via text, email or even a phone call. If it’s really legitimately the IRS, you’re going to get something in the mail in your mailbox,” she said.
She also warned about payment red flags.
“If you have a payment, if you’re not getting a refund, but you instead would need to pay the IRS, please do it with a credit card,” Duncan said. “That’s a huge red flag if someone says, I can prepare your taxes and pay me with a gift card or cryptocurrency or that kind of thing, that’s not legit. We don’t encourage people to do that. So just make sure that you’re taking those precautions.”
Beyond immediate financial losses, scammers are often after personal data, something Duncan says is as valuable to the scammers as money itself because identity theft can lead to fraudulent tax filings in a victim’s name. The Better Business Bureau says filing taxes early can help reduce that risk.
For those using a tax preparer, Duncan said to be cautious of so-called “ghost preparers.”
“A ghost tax preparer, as we call them, is one who will prepare your taxes for you, but then ask you to sign at the end. And that’s why they get around the IRS is loophole,” Duncan warned. “You want to make sure that your tax preparer they’re preparing the taxes they need to sign off on that and have that responsibility and liability attached to them.”
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