As residents prepare to file their annual income taxes, thieves and scammers are also preparing. 

"Thieves understand many American's are concerned about the accuracy of their tax filings and they use the fear of dealing with the Internal Revenue Service as a means to take advantage of others," according to Cherokee County Sheriff David Groves.

"It's important to remember, the IRS will never call you unsolicited or send you an email or text message asking about your taxes, not even to confirm information from your previous tax filings.  The IRS will always first reach out with an official letter sent through the United States Postal Service," continued Sheriff Groves.

Anyone who receives a call, text message or email from someone claiming to be with the IRS is encouraged to immediately hang up or delete it without responding or clicking on any links included in the message.

"In addition to being cautious about calls and emails, I also encourage everyone to take obtain their free annual credit report, which can be used to ensure nobody has opened unauthorized credit cards or bank accounts using their identity," concluded Sheriff Groves.

Federal law authorizes one free annual credit report, which includes information from the three credit reporting companies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.  The report can be obtained at annualcreditreport.com.

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