If you recently received a letter from the IRS asking you to update your bank account information, you are not alone. The IRS has sent well over 1.4 million CP53E notices to taxpayers this filing season, and scammers are already circulating convincing fakes. Here is what you need to know to protect yourself and your refund.
What Is a CP53E Notice?
A CP53E is a legitimate IRS notice informing you that your tax refund has been approved but cannot be delivered electronically. In most cases, the notice is triggered because the bank account or routing number on your return was missing, incorrect, or could not be validated by the IRS.
This notice is a direct result of the federal government’s ongoing transition away from paper refund checks. Executive Order 14247, signed in March 2025, directs the Treasury Department to prioritize electronic payments for all federal disbursements, including tax refunds. For returns filed during the 2026 filing season, the IRS is scanning Form 1040, Line 35 for direct deposit details and automatically generating a CP53E when that information is missing or unusable.
If you receive a legitimate CP53E, the IRS gives you 30 days to log into your IRS Online Account at IRS.gov/Account and update your banking information. Once updated, your refund is typically released via direct deposit within a few days. If you do not respond within 30 days, the IRS will eventually issue a paper check, but that process adds approximately six additional weeks of delay.
Why This Notice Is a Prime Target for Scammers
The CP53E is an especially attractive target for fraud because it combines two things that immediately get a taxpayer’s attention: a pending tax refund and a request for bank account details. That combination creates urgency, and urgency is exactly what scammers rely on.
Multiple accounting firms, including Top 100 Firms like Grassi and CBIZ, have recently issued client alerts warning about a surge in fraudulent CP53E notices. Some taxpayers have reported receiving the notice even though they were not expecting a refund at all, and some of those notices appear to have been issued by the IRS in error. That added confusion makes it even easier for scammers to exploit the situation.
Fake CP53E notices are being distributed by mail, email, and text message, and they are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real thing.
How to Spot a Fake CP53E Notice
A legitimate CP53E notice will always share these characteristics:
- It arrives by U.S. mail only. The IRS does not initiate contact about CP53E by email, text message, or phone.
- It directs you to update your information through your IRS Online Account at IRS.gov/Account and nowhere else.
- It explicitly states that IRS employees cannot update bank information for you by phone or in person.
- It provides a 30-day response window and explains that a paper check will be mailed after six weeks if you do not respond.
- It references the “Where’s My Refund?” tool for monitoring your refund status after updating your information.
A fraudulent CP53E notice may include one or more of these red flags:
- It contains a QR code or clickable link directing you to “verify,” “activate,” or “unfreeze” your refund.
- It asks you to call a phone number and provide bank account details over the phone.
- It arrives by email or text message.
- It directs you to a website other than IRS.gov.
- It uses threatening or urgent language demanding immediate action or claiming your refund will be forfeited.
- It claims a specific agent or representative can resolve the issue for you if you provide your details right away.
- The date on the notice is set in the future, a tactic scammers use to manufacture a false sense of urgency.
What to Do If You Receive a CP53E Notice
Do not panic, and do not act immediately. Follow these steps:
2. Log into your IRS Online Account. If you do not have one, you will need to create one using ID.me identity verification at IRS.gov/account.
3. Check whether the notice matches your tax situation. If you were not expecting a refund, that is a strong signal to pause and verify before doing anything.
4. Contact your tax professional. If anything about the notice feels off, forward it to us before taking any action. A few minutes of verification is always worth more than the risk of responding to a fake.
What to Do If You Already Responded to a Suspicious Notice
If you believe you may have shared personal or financial information with a scammer, take action right away:
• Contact your bank immediately. Ask them to monitor your account for unauthorized activity and consider freezing or closing the compromised account.
• Place a fraud alert or credit freeze with all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A credit freeze is free and prevents new accounts from being opened in your name.
• Report the incident to the IRS. Forward suspicious emails to phishing@irs.gov and report fraudulent notices to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at tigta.gov.
• File an identity theft report with the FTC at IdentityTheft.gov if you believe your Social Security number or other personal information was compromised.
The Bottom Line
The CP53E notice is real, and the IRS is issuing them in record numbers this year. But the sheer volume of legitimate notices has created a perfect opening for scammers to distribute convincing fakes. The safest approach is simple: ignore every link, QR code, and phone number on the notice itself, go directly to IRS.gov/Account, and verify everything through your official IRS Online Account.
If you have received a CP53E notice and are unsure whether it is legitimate, or if you have any questions about your refund status, contact Heyer Inc. We can help you verify the notice, confirm what it requires, and respond appropriately.