Surge in IRS and Tax-Themed Cyber Attacks Driven by Fresh Domain Registrations

The months of January through April, marking the U.S. tax season, have seen a sharp rise in malicious cyber activity targeting taxpayers.

Broadcom’s Symantec Security Center has identified a surge in IRS and tax-themed phishing campaigns, smishing attacks, and fraudulent domain registrations designed to deceive individuals and organizations.

These campaigns exploit the urgency of tax filing deadlines to lure victims into providing sensitive information or downloading malicious content.

Increased Cyber Threats During U.S. Tax Season

A recent example includes a fraudulent URL, “hxxps://www.irs.gov.tax-initial[.]com,” sent via smishing texts on January 27, 2025.

Analysis of WebPulse telemetry revealed numerous similar domains such as “irs.gov.reporting-tax[.]com” and “irs.gov.tax-ownership[.]com,” which mimic legitimate IRS websites.

These domains are being actively promoted through text messages and social media platforms, leading unsuspecting users to fake IRS pages hosting malicious content.

Proliferation of Malicious Domains

A comprehensive review of passive DNS (pDNS) data for subdomains resembling “irs.gov.*” uncovered 158 unique domains registered in January 2025 alone.

Telemetry data further revealed nearly 3,500 IRS or tax-themed domains categorized as phishing or malicious during the same period.

Notable examples include “2024-tax-refund[.]info,” “irs-claim-grant[.]com,” and “payment-form-irs[.]com.”

These domains are part of a broader effort by cybercriminals to exploit tax-related themes for financial gain.

Daily lookup trends for these domains indicate a consistent volume of user interactions, underscoring the scale of the threat.

Additionally, new domain registrations in January 2025 for IRS and federal tax-related typo-squatter domains numbered close to 150.

Examples include “claim32200-for2021-taxcredit[.]com” and “gov-irs[.]net.”

These domains often feature slight variations from legitimate URLs to deceive users into believing they are accessing official government resources.

Symantec has implemented robust protections against these threats through its cloud-based Web Security Engine (WebPulse).

Observed malicious domains and IPs are categorized under security filters across all WebPulse-enabled products, ensuring that users are safeguarded from accessing these fraudulent sites.

The surge in IRS and tax-themed cyberattacks highlights the importance of vigilance during tax season.

Individuals and businesses are advised to verify the authenticity of URLs before clicking on links, avoid sharing sensitive information via unsolicited messages, and rely on trusted cybersecurity solutions to mitigate risks.

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