Cross-Border Tax Refund Scam: Fake AI Tax Documents Used to Steal Refunds

Who Gets Targeted

Victims are mostly small and medium-sized cross-border e-commerce business owners, freelancers, or individual sellers who are unfamiliar with tax procedures and eager to recover invested operating capital. At the same time, they place a high degree of trust in official document formats and psychologically desire to quickly recapture funds. They are easily overwhelmed by a sense of urgency and the temptation of high tax refunds, leading them to directly provide bank accounts or pay so-called processing fees without verifying authenticity.

骗局怎么运作

• Fraud rings first obtain contact information of potential cross-border e-commerce sellers through crawlers or purchased lists, and proactively send 'IRS tax refund notices' via email or SMS before tax season. Email subjects often use high-temptation text such as 'Tax refund of 20,000 yuan' to attract the recipient's attention.
• The email body embeds an AI-generated PDF file featuring tax bureau logos, official seals, and layout formats on the surface. The text states that the victim's recent export tax refund has experienced a 'system error', requiring them to complete 'tax refund re-verification' within 24 hours, and provides a seemingly official link or QR code.
• After clicking the link, the victim enters a forged tax bureau portal page, which is also designed using AI image synthesis technology. It requests personal bank accounts, ID numbers, and a one-time payment of 'processing fees' or 'verification funds', claiming that the tax refund amount can only be received after completing this step.
• Under the urgent countdown prompted on the page and the fraudster's urging tone (such as 'Act immediately, missing out will cause you to lose your national refund'), victims often complete transfers or provide sensitive information in a panic, and the funds are immediately transferred to overseas money laundering accounts.
• After the transfer is completed, the scam team sends a confirmation email or SMS stating 'Tax refund has arrived', and subsequently deletes all traces within 24 hours. If victims fail to verify in time, they often discover the theft days later, making it difficult to recover losses.

红旗信号（看到这些快跑）

• 🚩 The sender's email domain completely mismatches the official tax bureau, with common forged suffixes resembling 'taxrefund.gov.cn'.
• 🚩 An urgent tone uncharacteristic of official phrasing appears in the email or SMS, such as 'Reply immediately', demanding completion within hours.
• 🚩 The attachment is a PDF file, but file properties show a generation time within the last few minutes, and the document contains AI-generated watermarks or unnatural layouts.
• 🚩 The domain pointed to by the link is non-official, and the page does not use an HTTPS security certificate or certificate information mismatches.
• 🚩 Requests for personal bank accounts, verification codes, or one-time payment of 'processing fees'—official tax bureaus never request such information via email.

真实案例

• In May 2022, a woman received an email disguised as the National Taxation Bureau stating a 20,000 yuan tax refund. After clicking the link and filling in her bank account, the full amount was transferred away, resulting in a loss of about 20,000 yuan. The case was solved by the Taipei City Police Department (Source: life.tw).
• In August 2023, the finance department of a cross-border e-commerce company received an AI-generated tax refund notice from the tax bureau claiming an immediate refund of 150,000 yuan. Without verification, they transferred funds to the provided account. The tax bureau later confirmed no such notice existed, resulting in a loss of about 150,000 yuan. The case was registered by the Taichung City Police Department (Source: dailyview.tw).
• In March 2024, a seller received an SMS and email claiming pending tax refunds in the United States, accompanied by a QR code to download documents. After scanning, the victim's personal data was stolen and they were asked to pay a processing fee of 5,000 yuan before discovering the scam. The case was issued as a warning by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan (Source: udn.com).
• In May 2026, a fraud syndicate mass-mailed tax refund notification emails impersonating the Ministry of Finance, Taiwan, falsely claiming that citizens only needed to click a link and fill out bank credit card information to claim a tax refund of over 20,000 yuan. The Northern Area Directorate of the National Taxation Bureau solemnly clarified that this was a classic phishing scam, noting that the tax bureau never notifies tax refunds via email. The fraudulent tax refund amount involved over 20,000 yuan. (Source: [https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/society/breakingnews/5445288](https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/society/breakingnews/5445288))
• In January 2024, after receiving a tax payment fraud call impersonating the National Taxation Bureau, a woman in Taichung went to a bank counter intending to withdraw 350,000 yuan to pay the fee. A bank teller noticed her incoherent speech and unusual state and reported it. Police officers from the Wenchang Police Station of the Fifth Precinct of the Taichung City Government Police Department arrived at the scene to persuade her and bust the scam, successfully safeguarding the woman's 350,000 yuan savings. (Source: [https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%81%87%E5%86%92%E5%9C%8B%E7%A8%85%E5%B1%80%E8%A6%81%E7%B9%B3%E7%A8%85%E8%A9%90%E9%A8%99-%E5%86%8D%E7%8F%BE-%E6%99%BA%E8%AD%A6%E5%8A%9B%E0%90%8B%E5%8B%B8%E5%AE%88%E8%AD%B7%E5%A9%BA%E4%BA%BA35%E8%90%AC%E5%85%83-135139068.html](https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%81%87%E5%86%92%E5%9C%8B%E7%A8%85%E5%B1%80%E8%A6%81%E7%B9%B3%E7%A8%85%E8%A9%90%E9%A8%99-%E5%86%8D%E7%8F%BE-%E6%99%BA%E8%AD%A6%E5%8A%9B%E0%90%8B%E5%8B%B8%E5%AE%88%E8%AD%B7%E5%A9%BA%E4%BA%BA35%E8%90%AC%E5%85%83-135139068.html))

Official Stance

• On May 11, 2023, the Ministry of Finance Taxation Administration issued an announcement titled 'Tax Refund Scam Prevention Reminder', warning the public not to easily trust email tax refund notifications (Source: newswire.com.tw).
• On June 11, 2025, CNA reported 'National Taxation Bureau: Tax Refund Notification Scams Increasing', listing four common operational methods and providing preventive advice (Source: cna.com.tw).
• On May 12, 2026, Next Apple published a special report titled 'AI Fake Tax Refund Notifications Bombarding', analyzing in detail the technical details of AI-generated documents and anti-fraud key points (Source: nextapple.com).

How to Protect Yourself

• ✅ When receiving any tax refund-related email or SMS, log in to the official website of the Taxation Administration or call the 165 anti-fraud hotline immediately to verify, and do not click links within emails.
• ✅ Carefully check the sender's email domain. Official tax bureaus only use official domains ending in 'tax.gov.tw' or 'mof.gov.tw'; any other domain should be regarded as suspicious.
• ✅ If the other party asks for bank accounts, verification codes, or one-time fees, immediately terminate communication and report the case to local police. Official authorities never collect fees via email.
• ✅ Enable email security filtering and install anti-phishing plugins, regularly update operating systems and security software to prevent malicious PDFs or links from executing.
• ✅ Establish an internal tax document review process within enterprises; all tax refund notices must be reviewed by financial supervisors or tax advisors before any operation.