Scam artists posing as the Internal Revenue Service have fraudulently solicited financial institutions seeking account holder identity and financial account information under the Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act, the agency has warned.

Scam artists posing as the Internal Revenue Service have fraudulently solicited financial institutions seeking account holder identity and financial account information under the Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act, the agency has warned.

According to a fraud alert issued by the IRS, financial institutions from multiple countries and continents registered to comply with FATCA have been approached by persons representing themselves as the tax agency.

The IRS said that fraudsters were using phishing scams to obtain information, typically carried out through the use of unsolicited emails and/or websites that pose as legitimate contacts.

Introduced on July 1, FATCA requires all financial institutions outside of the US to regularly submit information on financial accounts held by American citizens to the IRS. Those who are not compliant will suffer a 30 per cent withholding tax on income and gross proceeds, as of January 2015.

The IRS noted that that it does not require financial institutions to provide specific account holder identity or financial account information over the phone or by fax or email.

“Tax scams using the IRS name can take many forms and they are not limited by national borders. People should always be cautious before sending sensitive information to anyone,” said IRS commissioner John Koskinen.

The issue also underscores the threat of cybercrime to the banking and wealth management industry, which some estimates say cost the global economy $445 billion every year.

At a conference in New York City, sponsored by Bloomberg earlier this week, New York Department of Financial Services superintendent Benjamin Lawsky said cyberterrorism was the most significant issue his office faces over the next year.

“I worry that we’re going to have some sort of major cyber event in the financial system that’s going to cause us all to shudder, an Armageddon-type cyber event,” said Lawsky.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service are currently working together to determine the scope of recently-reported cyber attacks on JP Morgan and several other financial companies.

Last month, JP Morgan revealed that clients had been targeted in an elaborate email phishing scam that attempted to collect data for the bank as well as infecting computers with a virus that steals passwords from other institutions.

JP Morgan said the email looked authentic as the attackers had used a screen grab from an original email from the bank, but believed that most of the spam was stopped by filters at large internet providers.

Other banks that have been hit by cyber criminals, in what is fast becoming a serious problem for the industry, include Wells Fargo. In April, its online banking operations were knocked out intermittently by a cyber attack, one of the many assaults on the websites of major US banks since September last year.