Scammers are impersonating the IRS to drain crypto accounts and steal identities, using official-looking letters to bypass digital defenses, the agency's criminal investigation unit warned.
Paper notices that include QR codes are leading recipients to a spoofed Internal Revenue Service website, the agency said in a Thursday press release. The scheme directs crypto holders to enroll in a non-existent Digital Asset Compliance Portal before a deadline, then prompts them to enter personal information.
"Criminals continue to exploit public trust in government agencies by creating convincing fake websites and official-looking correspondence," IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said.
The infrastructure supporting the campaign was set up just days before the letters were sent out and used a domain listed through a Hong Kong registrar, the investigators said.
The look-alike website was hosted in Romania on a network "already known for hosting FedEx and banking phishing pages," signaling that it is a "professional, international fraud operation," according to a
The warning comes as cyber crime is surging, with the FBI casting crypto and AI-related complaints as among the costliest.
In 2025, Americans lost over $11 billion to crypto-related scams, marking a 22% increase from the previous year, according to the
