Congratulations, You're Entitled to a Refund . . . Now Hand Me Your Wallet
Posted by Lance Koonce
Perhaps I'm just cynical, but if the Internal Revenue Service sends me an email notice today saying that I have unexpectedly received a refund on my taxes, I will not rush out and start start shopping for that new car just yet. (Of course, maybe that's because my taxes are never done until April 15th, so anything I receive from the IRS this early is clearly a fraud.)
But the IRS is not laughing at the surge in email phishing attempts designed to prey on people's tendency to trust official-looking communications from the federal government.
Phony tax return emails rank third in the IRS's list of the "Dirty Dozen" tax frauds this year. The IRS describes the scam (or rather, multiple scams) in the following way:
Phishing is a technique used by identity thieves to acquire personal financial data in order to gain access to the financial accounts of unsuspecting consumers, run up charges on their credit cards or apply for new loans in their names. These Internet-based criminals pose as representatives of a financial institution and send out fictitious e-mail correspondence in an attempt to trick consumers into disclosing private information. Sometimes scammers pose as the IRS itself. In recent months, some taxpayers have received e-mails that appear to come from the IRS. A typical e-mail notifies a taxpayer of an outstanding refund and urges the taxpayer to click on a hyperlink and visit an official-looking Web site. The Web site then solicits a social security and credit card number. In a variation of this scheme, criminals have used e-mail to announce to unsuspecting taxpayers they are "under audit" and could make things right by divulging selected private financial information. Taxpayers should take note: The IRS does not use e-mail to initiate contact with taxpayers about issues related to their accounts. If a taxpayer has any doubt whether a contact from the IRS is authentic, the taxpayer should call 1-800-829-1040 to confirm it.
News articles on this form of phishing can be found here and here.
And don't forget: there are typically two forms of phishing scams: those that lure you in with a false promise, and those that seek to frighten you with a false threat (like the "under audit" scenario above). So don't be surprised if there's a slew of phishing emails on April 16th and thereafter trying to capitalize on late filers.
