Fraud and Scam Alerts

Criminals may use a range of attacks to steal your personal and financial data. The following information is meant to help you protect yourself from these scams. You can also subscribe to our Fraud and Scam Alert email updates.

Identify Theft

The Minnesota Department of Revenue takes the responsibility of protecting your personal information and your tax refund very seriously. We take the time necessary to verify the information on every return to make sure the right refund goes to the right person.

For more information, see Identity Theft and Tax Refund Fraud.

Suspicious Phone Calls

If you are concerned about a potentially fraudulent contact by an individual or an organization representing themselves as being from the Minnesota Department of Revenue, please call 651-296-3781 or 1-800-652-9094. An authorized staff member will be able to determine if the contact you received was legitimate.

Use caution and never provide personal information unless you are absolutely sure the situation is legitimate.

We will never ask you to provide, update, or verify personal information through unsolicited emails. Do not respond to such emails, and contact us with questions or concerns.

Phishing - Suspicious Emails

Phishing (as in “fishing for information” and “hooking” victims) is a scam involving the distribution of email messages to trick taxpayers into revealing personal and financial information which can be used to steal the taxpayer’s identity.

The Internal Revenue Service provides more information on its website, including:

• Recent consumer warnings about suspicious emails and identify theft
• How to report phishing, email scams, and bogus IRS websites