There is yet another Internal Revenue Service (IRS) email scam making the rounds, this one focusing on your tax refund. It is not a legitimate email from IRS.
Here’s what it says:
After the last annual calculations of your financial activity we have concluded that you are eligible to get a tax refund of $464.
You may submit the tax refund application and give us 3-9 days in order to process it.A refund can be hindered for many different reasons.
E.g., submitting invalid records or not meeting a deadline.To get information about your tax refund please open this link.
Sincerely,
Tax Refund Department
Internal Revenue Service
My copy came from Joy Hickey using the address deduce@irs.gov. The subject line is “Tax refund important information” – and oh yeah, they sent it to every single person at my law firm. The IP address is posted on a server in Saudi Arabia – and the address is blocked by at least one spam blocker (barracuda central.org).
There’s a lot wrong with the email, not the least of which is that the IRS will never send an unsolicited e-mail about your tax account or tax matters. Ever.
The purpose of the email is to get you to click on the link in the email. Don’t do it. The link likely contains a virus that could infect your computer or direct you to a site in order to steal your identity or otherwise access your financial information. You know the drill, forward it to phishing@irs.gov or delete and move on.
If you really want information on the status of your refund, head over to the IRS web site and use their “Where’s my refund?” tool.
