Where is your stimulus check? Don't let scammers steal it

The stimulus checks will go out any day now, and what you need to watch out for are scammers who are ready to take your money.

Scammers are hoping to capitalize if you let your guard down regarding your stimulus check. One scam that ABC11 viewer Kim Bryan alerted us about happened to her on Twitter.

"I was flattered Blake Shelton said hi," Bryan said.

Shelton is one of Bryan's favorite country music artists, so it immediately caught her attention.

"Hi, how are you? He asked me how old I was," Bryan added.

She was a little skeptical but kept the chat going to see how far it would go.

The twitter message then talked about the stimulus money.

"He said I'm trying to provide coronavirus assistance to my old fans," Bryan told ABC11.

The red flags went up, and Bryan realized she was not chatting with the real Blake Shelton, but instead someone impersonating the country music star.

"It's buyer beware, and I'm not a dummy, so watch out for this one," Bryan said.

Scammers are also duplicating banking websites. Abnormal Security's CEO, Evan Reiser, said his researchers discovered an attack where scammers impersonated a major bank and asked victims to verify their financial information to get the stimulus check.

"The website looks very authentic, very real looking, but it's also very fraudulent," Reiser said. "When people see these very convincing websites, they can get tricked, especially when the URL is disguised."

The scam started with an email directing victims to enter their personal information.

"The scammer is going it try and gain possession of the victims' banking information, and they are going to use that and steal money and furthermore they take that and sell it on the dark web," Reiser added.

According to the IRS, here is how you will get your money if you qualify. In most cases, the money will be directly deposited into the taxpayer's bank accounts that were previously provided on tax returns.

Those taxpayers who have already filed but not provided direct deposit information to the IRS will be able to provide their banking information online to a newly designed secure portal on IRS.gov in mid-April.

If the IRS does not have a taxpayer's direct deposit information, a check will be mailed to the address on file. Taxpayers should not provide their direct deposit or other banking information for others to input on their behalf into the secure portal.

For more information from the IRS on getting your stimulus check, click here.