IRS warns of counterfeit letters targeting crypto holders with fake compliance portal

The IRS issued a public warning on July 30 about a scam that should make every crypto holder check their mailbox twice. Fraudsters are sending counterfeit letters designed to look like official IRS correspondence, complete with references to real tax years and urgent-sounding deadlines, all directing recipients to a “Digital Asset Compliance Portal” that doesn’t exist. Here’s the thing: the IRS does not operate any such portal. The entire scheme is built to harvest personal data and, in some cases, trick people into transferring their digital assets directly to scammers. How the scam works The counterfeit letters arrive in plain envelopes. They reference tax years spanning 2017 through 2026, giving them the appearance of a legitimate compliance notice covering a taxpayer’s full digital asset history. Each letter includes a QR code. Scanning it takes the recipient to a phishing site masquerading as an official IRS enrollment page. From there, victims are prompted to enter sensitive personal information or, worse, initiate transfers of their crypto holdings. Coinbase flagged the threat two days before the IRS announcement. On July 28, the exchange published a consumer alert in collab...