Scams are up 400% this year according to the IRS. And with the deadline to file your taxes just around the corner, scammers are looking to strike! And they’re not all as dumb as you think.

There are several scams where criminals pretend to be the IRS saying they’re going to sue you, but here’s a twist: now they’re pretending to be IRS agents wanting to help you finish your tax return. They tell you they’ve got your return, but they need you to verify your identity before they can finish it. All they need is your name, your social security number and then they’ve got you.

This isn’t the first time con artists have pretended to be the good guy.

“They watch the news, they Google just like we do.”

They know what scams we’ve caught onto, and that’s when they change it up.

“We see that you’re being scammed, now we want you to help us catch the scammers. We want you to go and put $500 on a green dot card, now we’ll reverse the charges, but we want to be there to catch him or her when they pick up that money.”

Believe it or not, people have fallen for that. And much more.

“They’ll hack into the IRS and then send a bunch of people things saying hey we see that the IRS has been scammed, and you’re probably a victim so we need you to give us all this information.”

The IRS scam is one we see every year, so please, think twice before giving out any of your personal information to anyone.

If you aren’t sure whether you owe taxes, call 1-800-829-1040 and speak with a real agent.

The real IRS will send you messages in the mail, many times, before they’ll try calling you. They’ll never ask for your information over the phone or threaten to arrest you.