The Internal Revenue Service is calling on taxpayers to be wary of fraudsters using social media posts, emails, texts and calls to obtain financial information amid the current public health crisis, The Hill reported Thursday.

Charles Rettig, commissioner of the IRS, said in a statement that the public should “take extra care” and remain vigilant of hackers using phishing techniques to conduct tax fraud or identity theft.

Rettig noted that taxpayers should also disregard “surprise emails” that appear to be from the IRS and avoid opening suspicious links and attachments. Official updates must come directly from IRS.gov, he noted.

“The IRS isn’t going to call you asking to verify or provide your financial information so you can get an economic impact payment or your refund faster,” said Rettig.

According to the agency, hackers are particularly interested in “easy targets” such as retirees.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that federal emergency aid has been made available for the Commonwealth of Virginia to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the agency announced on Thursday.

“This disaster declaration will trigger important federal resources to help communities recover from COVID-19,” said Virginia Senator and three-time Wash100 Award winner, Mark Warner. “Virginia will now be able to utilize a wide range of federal assistance programs to assist those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including crisis counseling, disaster unemployment, supplemental nutrition assistance, and more.”

Public Assistance federal funding is available to the commonwealth, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance under Public Assistance, for all areas in the Commonwealth of Virginia affected by the pandemic.

“I’m grateful that Governor Northam’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration was approved to help Virginia combat the coronavirus. Last month, I wrote to the Trump Administration urging swift approval of these requests to help ensure Virginia and other states can get the support they need to respond to this pandemic. I’m committed to doing everything I can to push for additional federal resources for the Commonwealth,” said Virginia Senator, Tim Kaine.

About FEMA

For 38 years, FEMA’s mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of “A Nation Prepared.” The Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinates the federal government’s role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror. Its mission is to help people before, during and after disasters.

The Government Accountability Office has recommended that the Department of Defense improve its data collection procedures on contract awards for utility services supporting installations that the department has been privatizing since 1988.

GAO said in a report released Thursday that it evaluated 21 utility services contracts from fiscal years 2016 through 2018 and found that the DoD must provide complete data on “time to award” procedures.

The department must also create a repository of “lessons learned” in utility service awards management to help inform future programs and speed up the contracting process, the watchdog noted. According to the report, it took an average of four years for DoD to award all of the 21 utility support contracts during the FY16 to 18 period.

The DoD has since reported that it updated guidances, handbooks and templates in efforts to implement lessons learned from managing such contracts.

Without this repository, the department is “missing opportunities to collect and share lessons learned” to help public and private sector stakeholders in managing the remaining 580 utility systems slated for privatization, GAO said.