It has been well-documented that the three rounds of coronavirus stimulus checks have been a financial boon for millions of cash-strapped Americans.

But also know that the disbursement of these government-issued funds has in many ways played right into the hands of scammers looking to rake in sizeable chunks of cash via illegal means.

In response to the rise of such shady financial activities amid the ongoing pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service last summer released a “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams, while pressing Americans to be more vigilant about scammers and con artists.

And according to the agency, there are indeed fake websites for unclaimed stimulus checks that Americans should be aware of.

“Taxpayers should be alert to potential fake emails or websites looking to steal personal information,” the agency states.  

“The IRS will never initiate contact with taxpayers via email about a tax bill, refund or Economic Impact Payments,” it adds.

These sites are reportedly trying to garner personal information of U.S. taxpayers in order to gain access to their accounts and eventually their money. Under the IRS’ “Phishing” category, it says that it “has seen a tremendous increase in phishing schemes utilizing emails, letters, texts and links.”

It continues: “These schemes are blasted to large numbers of people in an effort to get personal identifying information or financial account information, including account numbers and passwords. Most of these new schemes are actively playing on the fear and unknown of the virus and the stimulus payments.”

The IRS also said to be aware of threatening impersonator phone calls.

“IRS impersonation scams come in many forms,” it says. “A common one remains bogus threatening phone calls from a criminal claiming to be with the IRS. The scammer attempts to instill fear and urgency in the potential victim. In fact, the IRS will never threaten a taxpayer or surprise him or her with a demand for immediate payment.”

More recently, there have been reports of people wondering whether a letter signed by President Joe Biden after their stimulus checks under the American Rescue Plan were issued is a scam. The letter outlines how much money was disbursed to their accounts and directs them to visit a website for more information.

In response, the IRS has confirmed that this is indeed legitimate correspondence from Washington.  

“After each of the three Economic Impact Payments is issued, the IRS is required to mail a notice to each recipient’s last known address. The notice provides information about the amount of the payment, how it was made and how to report any payment that wasn’t received. Some people may receive multiple notices about each payment. Most people will simply file the notice with their tax records and won’t need to contact the IRS or take any further action,” the agency stated.

“People should keep any IRS notices they receive about Economic Impact Payments with other tax records. The IRS cannot issue replacement copies of these notices,” it added.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Minneapolis-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.