IRS Refund Scam - IRS Phishing Alert
IRS Issues 'Phishing' Warning
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The Internal Revenue Service,
noting an escalation in identity theft scams, is raising alarms
about e-mails designed to dupe taxpayers into revealing personal
financial information.
IRS and Treasury Department officials have noticed an increase
this winter in the frequency and sophistication of "phishing"
schemes that use the tax agency's logo to lure victims. The
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found 12
separate Web sites hosting such "phishing" schemes operating in 11
different countries, from the United States to Aruba to Korea.
The scam runs like this:
The e-mails announce that recipients have a refund
pending or they are being investigated by the agency. |
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Recipients are given a Web link, which leads to a phony
IRS site. Victims are asked for information including passwords,
account numbers, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers.
"Victims may not know they are victims until months later, when
suddenly things appear on their credit card," said Bonnie Heald,
spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration, which investigates groups or individuals impersonating
the IRS as well as fraud within the IRS.
IRS
Refund Scam eMail
I have received this email almost every
day for the last
couple of weeks - you would think that they would at least 'suck' me
in with more that $63.80 of 'bait'
J
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from: Internal Revenue
Service [admin@irs.gov]
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subject: Password Change
Required
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After the last annual
calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you
are eligible to receive a tax refund of $63.80. Please
submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to
process it.
A refund can be delayed for a
variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or
applying after the deadline.
To access the form for your tax
refund, please click here
Regards,
Internal Revenue Service |
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Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.. |
IRS Tax Fraud Scams News
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