I received a letter from the IRS on Sat. Hands shaking I opened it: letter type 5447C, you need to verify your identity, call this number. I just did and was on the phone with a woman who asked questions like, what's the dollar amount on line X of your 2025 return, what's such-and-such entry on your 2024 return, where were you born, mother's maiden name (how the fork does IRS even know this to verify), ... And weirdly she would ask a couple of questions then put me on hold for a few minutes, then come on again with more. The ordeal lasted about 20mins. after which I asked her, Ma'am I owed money for 2025, which I paid, so why the identity verification? The worry for fraud would be if someone's asking a refund to be sent maybe somewhere it shouldn't, right? I got a rote answer about IRS wanting to protect taxpayers. The letter and phone number were both clearly legit so no worries there. In any case, this is the first time I've got a letter like this in decades of filing, so a heads-up if this is a new protocol.
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