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phishing

By now, you have to have received one of the scam emails purporting to be from the IRS with the subject line: “Notice of Underreported Income.” I’ve received 59 of them just since September 18, 2009. Persistent little spammers.

But if you’re smart or if you follow me on twitter (not that those things are mutually exclusive), you know that those emails are bad news.

The emails look like this:

scam.jpg

The email encourages you to click on a link to view your tax statement. Don’t do it. The links are associated with a number of viruses and malware, including Zeus Trojan. If your computer becomes infected with the Zeus Trojan, your personal and financial information may be at risk, with a specific focus on online banking.

How prevalent is Zeus Trojan? A recent investigation by a prominent computer security firm found that at least 55% of the computers that it searched were infected, despite anti-virus software on the computers. The group behind Zeus, thought to be located in Europe, has become more aggressive as it targets users.

How do you protect yourself and your information? Don’t click on links or attachments in emails which purport to be from the IRS unless you requested the information. The IRS never begins investigations or contacts taxpayers with tax information unannounced via email. Never. Ever. Never.

Hit delete and don’t look back.

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I just received the following email with the subject line “Confidential Information” in my inbox:

fake-irs.gov.jpg

The attachment was a form which requested a long list of information including:

  • Billing Address
  • Social Security Number
  • Mother’s Maiden Name
  • Drivers License
  • Social Security Number
  • Phone Number
  • Credit Card Number with Signature Panel Code and Expiration, plus PIN
  • Bank Name
  • Filing Status here.

At the bottom of the form is the warning: “Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted.”

So, a couple of things…

1, The IRS will never contact you by email regarding a tax matter unless you contact them first.

2, The IRS would never ask for your credit card and other personally identifying information via email.

3, The “from” address is clearly a fake:

4, The grammar and capitalization in the email and on the form are poor, which leads me to believe that it’s along the lines of the Nigerian email and fax scams (you know, where the first language is clearly not English). Even the IRS doesn’t make that many mistakes!

So yes, it’s a scam. These folks are just trying to get you to hand over your personally identifying information. Don’t fall for it!

For more information on how to report these phishing scams to the IRS, you can go to the IRS web site here.

Be smart.

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Tax Court Warning

March 9, 2009 · 0 comments

The US Tax Court has received reports about an e-mail allegedly sent by a member of the Tax Court’s practitioner bar. This is NOT a legitimate email. If you do not have a case pending before the US Tax Court, the Court will not contact you via email.

The Tax Court has advised that if you receive an e-mail with a subject line that includes the text, “Notice of Deficiency #” followed by a series of numbers or “US Tax Petition”, along with a malformed docket number following the format #000-000, and a sender address of noreply@ustaxcourt.org, complaints@ustaxcourt.org, or notice@ustaxcourt.org, delete the e-mail and do not click any link in the email.

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I’ve posted before that there are NO plans in Congress to distribute monthly stimulus payments or rebates or bonuses to taxpayers.

Nonetheless, I continue to receive emails from concerned readers about ads touting such a plan (I’ve seen one myself). These ads are the product of private companies: this information is NOT from the IRS, the Department of the Treasury or any related government agency. For the most part, these ads are from private companies who are selling services, annuities and other financial products. I have received specific information that the ads have been seen on Yahoo and on eBay – there may be other sites. If you see these ads, please keep in mind that they are NOT offering a free tax rebate from the government.

It’s also important to remember that the IRS will not send you email or phone you without your first contacting them. There are a number of scams out there ‘phishing’ for information about your bank account, etc. This has ramped up during the post tax season as questions arise about rebates and refunds. Do not be fooled, no matter how legitimate the emails look or the correspondence sounds. If you ever have a question about the legitimacy of an email, you can email it to phishing@irs.gov. You can also call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040 if you have questions about your account.

Finally, do not believe anyone who tells you that they can get your rebate to you “faster” – this is not true. As slow as the IRS is moving to get those checks out, there is no private service that can speed it up. Don’t be fooled.

Be careful with your money and your personal information. Scammers, creeps and deadbeats are practically drooling this time of year. Folks are desperate and a little too trusting (I should know, many of you have offered to send me your Social Security Numbers in order to check on your rebates – please don’t! I don’t have any more information than you do and neither does anyone else. Call the IRS or check out the web site at www.irs.gov – though I know the web site has produced mixed results).

Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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Beware of Fresh Tax Scams!

28 January 2008

Scammers are at it again. I just received this email (above) earlier today which leads to a fairly official looking web site here. Be advised that this is not a legitimate email and this is not a legitimate web site.
The site has as its source, cjpowers.com, a web site owned by Christoper Powers [...]

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I Guess Scammers Don’t Read My Blog.

10 October 2007

I just received the following email with the header “Get Tax Refund on your VISA or MasterCard Now!” in my email today:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $135.50. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days [...]

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The IRS Doesn’t Care What You Think.

29 August 2007

Okay, maybe they do care (maybe a little), but they certainly aren’t going to pay you for your opinion.
The IRS is warning about a new phishing scam involving an email to taxpayers purporting to issue a tax credit in the amount of $80 in exchange for completing an online survey.
It’s not going to happen. [...]

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Re: You’re Being Investigated for Tax Fraud

4 June 2007

The IRS wants you to understand that you’ll never actually see that message in a subject line from IRS. It’s the newest scam to target taxpayers.
Taxpayers have reported the receipt of an email allegedly from “IRS Criminal Investigation” claiming that an investigation is underway for filing of a false return or other complaint. [...]

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Go Phish.

14 March 2007

As tax day creeps even closer, the IRS reminds you that their web site is http://www.irs.gov. That’s right, .gov. Not .com, .edu, .org, .net or any other variation on a theme.
And exercise caution with respect to emails purporting to be from IRS. As the IRS has announced before, it will never send you an [...]

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The Dirty Dozen.

24 February 2007

No, no Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Charles Bronson here. It’s the IRS’ annual Dirty Dozen:  tax schemes to avoid.  The top schemes to avoid for 2007 (the list for 2006 is here), many of which have already been noted on this site, are:
1. Telephone Excise Tax Refund Abuses.
2. Abusive Roth IRAs (specifically methods of [...]

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