WASHINGTON – U.S. Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and James Lankford (R-OK) are sounding the alarm on the potential use of artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, to generate persuasive, tailored scams that are intended to rob Americans by getting access to their personal financial information. Last month, Senator Hassan pressed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Daniel Werfel on addressing AI-generated tax scams during a Senate Finance hearing, where she asked the Commissioner how the IRS is adapting its anti-fraud services to meet this emerging threat.

“In previous tax filing seasons, many scam messages could be identified by spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and inaccurate references to the tax code,” the Senators wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Werfel. “By contrast, tax scams generated by new AI tools are professionally composed and specifically tailored to trick vulnerable taxpayers.”

The Senators continued, “According to recent reporting, one cybersecurity expert demonstrated how ChatGPT can be used to generate scam messages from the IRS targeting families, older Americans, and small businesses. For example, ChatGPT generated a fake email from the IRS claiming that, in order to receive a $1,450 tax refund, an individual needed to respond with personal financial information.”

In their letter, the Senators urge the IRS to prepare for and counter these AI-generated tax scams, including by educating taxpayers and tax professionals about the existence of these tax scams and what to watch out for. The Senators also ask the IRS whether it expects these AI-generated tax scams to become more common and how these scams might evolve over time.