Cybersecurity experts report a surge in AI-generated tax-related scams where criminals use artificial intelligence to create realistic imposter websites and emails, leading to increased financial losses for victims.
Cybersecurity firm Guardio tracked a 77% increase in tax-related phishing scams in 2025, with criminals increasingly using artificial intelligence to create realistic imposter websites and emails. According to Guardio's Karin Zilberstein, AI has 'increased the quality of scams' making them 'look so much more real' with 'more eloquent' language, 'more realistic' links, and visuals that 'imitate precisely the imitated brand.' Security software company DNSFilter found that traffic to malicious domains with 'tax' in the name peaked 30 days before Tax Day in 2024. The average tax scam victim lost $8,199 according to McAfee. Scammers use AI to impersonate legitimate entities like the IRS through email, text, and phone calls to steal personal information. Common tactics include fake IRS texts asking for personal information to receive economic impact payments, 'ghost preparers' who set up fake tax preparation websites, and misleading tax advice on social media platforms like TikTok. The IRS warns it will never threaten legal action, promise refunds, or demand payment through text or email.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed