C’mon, the IRS isn’t that internet savvy…

The IRS will never ask for information from you via an unsolicited email.  Never.  Ever.

It’s important to keep this in mind.  There has been a recent increase in scam emails claiming to be from IRS in an effort to obtain personal and financial information that could be used in identity theft cases.  Many of those targeted have ".edu" email addresses.

To date,
investigations have identified sites hosting more than two dozen IRS-related scams.  The scam sends out emails which purport to come from IRS and direct the recipient to a web site for information about a federal income tax refund.  The web site appears to be an IRS site but has bogus forms on the site which asks for identifying information including Social Security numbers and financial accounts; this information is then used to tap financial accounts and otherwise steal from the recipient.  These scam Web sites have been located in many different
countries, including Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Canada,
Chile, China, England, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea,
Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Singapore and Slovakia, as well as the United
States.

The IRS has established an email address for taxpayers to
send information about suspicious e-mails they receive which claim to
come from the IRS.  Taxpayers should send such information to: phishing@irs.gov.  However, this mailbox is only for suspicious e-mails and not for general taxpayer contact or inquiries.