The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is again warning tax professionals about a potential scam involving email and IRS e-services. In the scam, which is a variation on a prior scam, tax professionals receive an email asking them to update their accounts: the link in the email directs to a bogus website that purports to be an e-services registration page. The website is a phishing site. A phishing site is a site that pretends to be legitimate but collects personal information or asks you to confirm or personal information, including credit card information, bank account numbers, PIN numbers, Social Security numbers and passwords for the purpose of committing fraud.
The subject line of the fraudulent email is “Security Awareness for Tax Professionals.” The email purports to be from “Your e-Services Team” and uses both an IRS logo and an e-services logo. Both of those logos link to the phishing site, which looks like an e-services registration page.
The email advises that information was stolen from certain user accounts in 2015 from a state-sponsored actor. The email then directs users to upgrade their e-service account to ensure the protection of their information by clicking on the login to access their account.
If you are an e-services user and you received the email and clicked on the fake logo or link and provided their username and password, contact the real e-services help desk immediately to reset your password. If you clicked on the link and the password you provided is the same password you use for other accounts, you should immediately reset those passwords. As an extra precaution, users should perform a deep security scan on their computers, re-evaluate their security controls, and be alert to any other signs of identity theft or data compromise.
If you receive a suspicious email that claims to be from IRS, do not open the email or click on any links. Instead, forward it as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov and then delete the email.
To forward an email as an attachment in Apple Mail, click on “Message” and scroll down to click on “Forward as an Attachment.”
To forward an email as an attachment in Microsoft Outlook, click on “Actions” and scroll down to click on “Forward as an Attachment.” Alternatively, you can click on Ctrl+Alt+F.
Tax professionals should always remember to visit IRS.gov directly to access e-services and never click on any links in emails allegedly from IRS.
For more information about protecting your accounts and taxpayer information, check out the “Protect Your Clients; Protect Yourself” page on the IRS website.
