As Tax Season approaches, so too do scammers eager to steal your tax returns. It’s important to be aware of common scam tactics used by criminals to ensure you (and your sweet sweet refund) are safe and sound.

No longer are scammers just sending phishing emails with obviously phony links. Scams today frequently come through texts and calls from legitimate looking toll-free numbers and feature persuasive, realistic conversations. Even if they do reach out using good-old-fashioned phishing emails, they’ll do it with official logos, legitimate-sounding terms, and sometimes even faked email addresses. It’s getting harder and harder to spot an obvious tell, like strange addresses, weird links, or plentiful typos unbecoming of an official government agency (but it’s good to keep an eye out for those anyway!).

Here are some important tips to remember this season to keep your wallet safe:

• The IRS will not email, message, or text you. Tax transcripts, refunds, or any other IRS-related matters are never sent via email. The government uses snail mail for these kinds of things — if it’s not in your physical mailbox, it’s not legit. Don’t click on any links, no matter how realistic they look, from text messages, emails, or social media messages.
• They won’t call you either. The IRS will never cold-call you, even if you do owe taxes. This is always sent through mail first. If someone claiming to be from the IRS calls you and asks for sensitive information like your social security number (SSN), your taxpayer ID number, or your debit/credit card number, hang up.
• Prepaid cards are always a scam. Thieves often ask for payment using gift cards for all sorts of things — a fee to get your stimulus check, to expedite some refund process, what have you. This is because they’re untraceable once you give them the card number. The government will never ask for you to pay in such a way — you’ll only ever be mailed a paper bill by the IRS.
• Look for the .gov. All official government websites will end in a .gov address. If it doesn’t end in a .gov, it isn’t the government.
• Be wary of short time-frames. The IRS isn’t going to snatch away your refund if you take more than 24 hours to reply, nor will they “cancel” your SSN. Scams use urgency to spook you into acting without thinking. The government uses snail mail to send tax information to you — they’re in no rush.
• Double-check tax preparer emails. Some scammers also taken to masquerading as tax preparation services, like TurboTax or H&R Block. It’s important to check hyperlinks and scrutinize any emails claiming to be from these services, especially if they’re very pushy about time-frames. Accountants may be eager to get in your taxes, but they’re not that eager.

For more information, be sure to check out these legitimate sites with plenty of info on tax season scams: LifeLock, Nerd Wallet, and Naked Security. Of course, you can also just use the official IRS site for your bone-dry scam information. Also be sure to see Bleeping Computer for more information on tax-preparer scams, especially now that some well known names have dropped out of the federal Free File program. (Did you know that most tax filing services provide a government-funded free tax filing service to anyone whose annual income is less than $73k?)