Tax Season Scam Calls are Silently Killing Your Answer Rates

Two things are certain January – April every year: taxes are due, and your customers are being bombarded with fake IRS scam calls¹. While we often talk about the victims who lose money to these frauds, there is another victim: the business owner.  

When hundreds of millions of fraudulent calls flood the network, it hurts customer trust. Here is how that spike in scams is possibly hitting your bottom line. 

The Rise of the “AI Imposter” 

Phone calls remain the second most reported contact method for fraud². Scammers have traded in their robotic scripts for AI-generated voice cloning to mimic real IRS agents. 

This technology makes it difficult for the average person to distinguish between a criminal threat and a legitimate government outreach. In fact, many people now report that these AI voices are so convincing they include accurate personal details pulled from recent data breaches, like the last four digits of a social security number, to manufacture a false sense of authority.³ 

Guilt by Association and the $12.5 Billion Problem 

Even if your business does everything right, you’re paying for the scammers’ success. Because 2024 saw a 25% increase in total fraud losses, reaching a staggering $12.5 billion⁴, carrier filters are now more aggressive than ever. Global losses to robocalling fraud alone were projected to peak at over $80 billion in 2025⁵, forcing telecom providers to tighten their security protocols. 

To protect consumers, networks dial up their automated blocking and labeling. This means that during these high-traffic months, your legitimate business calls are significantly more likely to be swept up in spam filters or incorrectly flagged as “Scam Likely.” This reflects a network-wide defense that doesn’t always know how to tell the difference between a fraudulent IRS spoof and your legitimate customer service call. 

How First Orion Can Help 

First Orion can support businesses through the chaos of tax season with these solutions: 

1. Stopping the “Scam Likely” Label Before It Starts

During the tax season surge, carrier filters are on high alert for anything that looks like a high-volume outbound call. 

• The First Orion Solution: Through AFFIRM^® Reputation Monitoring, we give you a window into how your numbers actually appear on major carriers. If your legitimate business number gets tagged as “Spam,” we alert you. Monitoring is only one piece of the puzzle. At First Orion, we recommend a multi-layered approach to ensure your calls reach their destination that includes business number registration and call behavior best practices. 

2. Replacing Mystery with Mastery (Branded Calling)

When a customer sees an unknown number in April, they assume it’s a scammer. When they see your logo, they know it’s a partner. 

• The First Orion Solution: INFORM^®Branded Calling allows you to display your name, reason for calling, and logo (available with our INFORM with Logo solution), directly on the screen. By removing the mystery, businesses see a massive lift in answer rates because the customer feels safe picking up, just like this one teledentistry business. 

3. Spoof-Proofing Your Reputation

The scariest part of tax season for a business is when a scammer “spoofs” your number to call victims.  

• The First Orion Solution: Our SENTRY^® Call Blocking technology acts as a bodyguard for your phone numbers. It uses advanced call authentication to verify that a call using your number actually originated from your system. If it’s a scammer trying to use your caller ID to impersonate you, the network identifies it and prevents your branding from appearing, or blocks the call entirely, keeping your reputation intact. 

4. ReachingYourAudience with RCS 

Sometimes the phone is just too noisy. During tax season, a follow-up text is often more effective than a fifth call attempt. 

• The First Orion Solution: With ENRICH Branded Messaging, we help you send verified RCS messages that include your business name, logo, images, videos, carousels, and buttons. This allows a customer to confirm an appointment or upload a document in a secure, branded environment that SMS simply can’t offer. 

The Bottom Line 

Don’t let the shadow of tax season scammers darken your answer rates. While the IRS warns consumers to hang up, we’re here to help your customers feel confident about picking up.  

Choose the plan that fits your goals and let’s get to work. Have questions? Contact us today! Our team is ready to help you stop the ‘Spam Likely’ labels for good.” 

Sources: 

1. AARP  
2. FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data 
3. Identity Theft Resource Center 
4. FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data 
5. Juniper Research study