Tax scammers come at all angles.
Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, says one new scam is an email that seems to come from your payroll service, saying your W-2 form was compromised in a data breach. It asks you to click to find out how to protect yourself, and then once you do, it asks you for your Social Security number.
The best way to avoid these scams is to be aware and to not readily give out your Social Security number, especially via email, says Kaiser.
That extends to how you communicate with your tax professionals emailing documents back and forth. Your preparer should password protect the documents and have a secure server.
4. Know your relatives
Even if you avoid being taken to the cleaners by strangers, there could be dangers lurking in your own home.
"The truth is that a lot of ID theft is people who know each other," says Kaiser.
They will probably know where you store sensitive information and have answers to easy security questions like your first pet.
"We don’t want people to distrust family members, but people should be aware of that, anyone who has access is somebody who could possibly use that information," Kaiser says.
If you were counting on the IRS's 6-digit Identity Protection PIN, which uses a personal identification number to help lock out fraudsters, you are out of luck. The system was pulled down last week for a security review, according to the IRS. The agency said it had already stopped 800 fraudulent returns among the 2.7 million PINs issued so far for the current filing season.