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Whether by email, phone or fax, scam artists claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service are looking to take taxpayers for a ride.

"Email is the one that we have seen so far as the most common kind of phishing scam that the average taxpayer will receive, and generally around tax time, but they do go on all year round," says IRS employee Dianne Besunder.

Emails purporting to be from the IRS and fraudulently using the IRS logo have been sent out to taxpayers claiming they are due a refund. The email requests personal and financial information in order for the taxpayer to collect.

"The IRS never contacts taxpayers unsolicited on email to ask them or talk about their tax account, so that's the number one red flag," says Besunder.

Also, all IRS Internet addresses start with "www.irs.gov," so any other long web address claiming to be from the IRS is another red flag.

The IRS also warns taxpayers to beware of unexpected phone calls supposedly from the IRS.

"If anyone receives a call from the IRS and they're really not expecting it, we usually just don't call you out of the blue. It's some issue that you're working with one of us on," says Besunder. "Basically what you need to do is hang up and call the main IRS number."

Once contacted, officials at the IRS can say whether the agency was really trying to reach out.

In general, take caution any time someone who claims to be from the IRS tries to make contact through phone, fax or email. Contact the IRS directly to verify that the communication actually came from the agency.

For more information about tax scams, visit www.irs.gov and type "scams" in the search box. To verify or report a scam, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.