Yup, there’s another scam going around. If you’ve gotten an actual, physical letter that looks like it’s from the IRS asking you to fill out the form “W-8BEN” you need to be careful.
Now, W-8BEN is a real IRS form. It’s commonly filled out by non-citizens that are paying taxes in the United States.
However, the fake W-8BEN has different fields than the real one does, and it asks people for their passport numbers, account PINs and other information that helps criminals steal the identities of the victims. The real form obviously asks for none of this information.
If you think that you’ve gotten a scam email, you can email [email protected] with the subject line “IRS Impersonation Scam” to report it and get help.
You can also ask for some help from your local accounting firm. We’re always trying to keep people from getting scammed.