Senators Call for Action Against AI Tax Scams
A group of senators from both political parties have written a letter addressed to the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Daniel Werfel, expressing their concern about the developing threat of tax scams created by artificial intelligence (AI) programs and chatbots such as ChatGPT. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire), Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), and James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) have urged the IRS to raise awareness amongst taxpayers and tax experts about these emerging AI-generated tax scams. These scams are designed to deceive taxpayers and steal their money and sensitive financial information.
The senators further highlighted that, in the past, it was easier to identify tax scams, as they would contain spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and inaccurate tax code references. However, the new AI tools used to generate tax scams are composed professionally, making it difficult to distinguish these scams from legitimate IRS correspondence. The senators have urged IRS to use all resources at their disposal to counter these AI-generated tax scams and to inform taxpayers and tax experts about the existence of these scams and how to avoid them.
The senators' request comes at a time when cybersecurity experts have demonstrated the effectiveness of ChatGPT in generating scam messages purporting to be from the IRS. These messages are specifically tailored to target families, older Americans, and small businesses. As an example, ChatGPT was used to generate a fake IRS email that claimed that an individual could receive a tax refund of $1,450 by responding with personal financial information.
As per the request of the senators, the IRS needs to take action to inform taxpayers and tax experts about these emerging AI-generated tax scams. It is also vital to protect individuals from investment and other such scams that prey on their financial weaknesses.
