The IRS warned on July 30 that scammers are mailing fake letters with QR codes to steal crypto. Coinbase flagged the same threat on July 28.
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The IRS issued a public warning on July 30 about scammers mailing counterfeit letters that use QR codes to steal digital assets and personal data from taxpayers. The letters are designed to look like official IRS correspondence, complete with references to real tax years and urgent deadlines, and direct recipients to a "Digital Asset Compliance Portal" that does not exist.
The IRS said it does not operate any such portal. The scheme is built to harvest personal information and, in some cases, trick people into transferring their crypto holdings directly to the scammers.
Each counterfeit letter arrives in a plain envelope and references tax years from 2017 through 2026, giving it the appearance of a legitimate compliance notice covering a taxpayer's full digital asset history. The letter includes a QR code. Scanning it takes the victim to a phishing site that mimics an official IRS enrollment page, where they are prompted to enter sensitive data or initiate a transfer of their crypto.
Coinbase flagged the threat two days before the IRS announcement. On July 28, the exchange published a consumer alert in collaboration with security firm DarkTower, detailing how the letters use realistic formatting to bypass skepticism. Coinbase said the letters are unusually convincing compared with typical phishing attempts, which tend to arrive by email with obvious spelling errors and suspicious links.
Since 2019, the IRS has sent legitimate educational compliance letters to individuals suspected of underreporting their digital asset activities. The agency has steadily increased its scrutiny of digital asset reporting, and receiving mail from the IRS about crypto is no longer unusual. The scammers are exploiting that familiarity, the IRS said.
The IRS has outlined several ground rules to help distinguish real communications from fakes. The agency does not send QR codes in its official correspondence. It does not ask taxpayers to transfer digital assets as part of any compliance process. Any legitimate IRS notice can be verified through the agency's official website, IRS.gov, or by calling the number listed on that site, not the number printed on a suspicious letter.
If you receive one of these letters, the IRS said, do not scan the QR code. Do not call any phone number listed in the letter. Go directly to IRS.gov and use the agency's own tools to check your account status.
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