IRS Warns Taxpayers of New E-mail Scams
Updated Aug. 24, 2007 — The Internal Revenue Service today warned taxpayers of a
new phishing scam, in which an e-mail purporting to come from the IRS advises taxpayers
they can receive $80 by filling out an online customer satisfaction survey. The
IRS urges taxpayers to ignore this solicitation and not provide any requested information.
The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers through e-mail.
Updated June 19, 2007 — In another recent scam, consumers have received a "Tax Avoidance
Investigation" e-mail claiming to come from the IRS' "Fraud Department" in which
the recipient is asked to complete an "investigation form," for which there is a
link contained in the e-mail, because of possible fraud that the recipient committed.
It is believed that clicking on the link may activate a Trojan Horse.
May 31, 2007
The Internal Revenue Service today alerted taxpayers to the latest versions of an
e-mail scam intended to fool people into believing they are under investigation
by the agency’s Criminal Investigation division.
The e-mail purporting to be from IRS Criminal Investigation falsely states that
the person is under a criminal probe for submitting a false tax return to the California
Franchise Tax Board. The e-mail seeks to entice people to click on a link or open
an attachment to learn more information about the complaint against them. The IRS
warned people that the e-mail link and attachment is a Trojan Horse that can take
over the person’s computer hard drive and allow someone to have remote access to
the computer.
The IRS urged people not to click the link in the e-mail or open the attachment.
Similar e-mail variations suggest a customer has filed a complaint against a company
and the IRS can act as an arbitrator. The latest versions appear aimed at business
taxpayers as well as individual taxpayers.
The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails or ask for detailed personal and financial
information. Additionally, the IRS never asks people for the PIN numbers, passwords
or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial
accounts.
“Everyone should beware of these scam artists,” said Kevin M. Brown, Acting IRS
Commissioner. “Always exercise caution when you receive unsolicited e-mails or e-mails
from senders you don’t know.”
Recipients of questionable e-mails claiming to come from the IRS should not open
any attachments or click on any links contained in the e-mails. Instead, they should
forward the e-mails to phishing@irs.gov.
The IRS also sees other e-mail scams that involve tricking victims into revealing
private personal and financial information over the Internet, a practice that is
known as “phishing” for information.
The IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration work with the
U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and various Internet service providers
and international CERT teams to have the phishing sites taken offline as soon as
they are reported.
Since the establishment of the mail box last year, the IRS has received more than
17,700 e-mails from taxpayers reporting more than 240 separate phishing incidents.
To date, investigations by TIGTA have identified host sites in at least 27 different
countries, as well as in the United States.
Other fraudulent e-mail scams try to entice taxpayers to click their way to a fake
IRS Web site and ask for bank account numbers. Another widespread e-mail tells taxpayers
the IRS is holding a refund (often $63.80) for them and seeks financial account
information. Still another email claims the IRS’s ‘anti-fraud commission’ is investigating
their tax returns.
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