|
|
The Internal Revenue Service has issued several
recent consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the
IRS name or logo by scamsters trying to gain access to
consumers? financial information in order to steal their
identity and assets. When identity theft takes place
over the Internet, it is called phishing.
Suspicious e-Mail/Phishing
Phishing (as in ?fishing for information? and ?hooking?
victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send e-mail
messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing
personal and financial information that can be used to
steal the victims? identity. Current scams include phony
e-mails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure
the victims into the scam by telling them that they are
due a tax refund.
You Can Help Shut Down Phishing Schemes
The good news is that you can help shut down these
schemes and prevent others from being victimized. If you
receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the
IRS, you can relay that e-mail to a new IRS mailbox,
phishing@irs.gov. Follow instructions in the link below
for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure that it retains
critical elements found in the original e-mail. The IRS
can use the information, URLs and links in the
suspicious e-mails you send to trace the hosting Web
site and alert authorities to help shut down the
fraudulent sites. Unfortunately, due to the expected
volume, the IRS will not be able to acknowledge receipt
or respond to you.
Identity Theft
Identity theft can be committed through e-mail (phishing)
or other means, such as regular mail, fax or telephone,
or even by going through someone's trash.
Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal
information such as your name, Social Security number or
other identifying information without your permission to
commit fraud or other crimes. Typically, identity
thieves use someone?s personal data to empty the
victim?s financial accounts, run up charges on the
victim?s existing credit cards, apply for new loans,
credit cards, services or benefits in the victim?s name,
file fraudulent tax returns or even commit crimes.
People whose identities have been stolen can spend
months or years ? and their hard-earned money ? cleaning
up the mess thieves have made of their good name and
credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job
opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or
cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't
commit.
Recent Schemes
When the IRS learns about schemes involving use
of the IRS name, it tries to alert consumers as well as
authorities that can shut down the scheme, if possible.
The most recent schemes are listed below.
-
A new variation of the refund scheme (see items
below) is directed toward organizations that
distribute funds to other organizations or
individuals. In an attempt to seem legitimate,
the scam e-mail claims to be sent by, and
contains the name and supposed signature of,
the Director of the IRS Exempt Organizations
area of the IRS. The e-mail asks recipients to
click on a link to access a form for a tax
refund. In reality, taxpayers claim their tax
refunds through the filing of an annual tax
return, not a separate application form.
-
In a variation, an e-mail scam claims to come
from the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service
(a genuine and independent organization within
the IRS whose employees assist taxpayers with
unresolved tax problems). The e-mail says that
the recipient is eligible for a tax refund and
directs the recipient to click on a link that
leads to a fake IRS Web site.
A scam e-mail that appears to be a solicitation
from the IRS and the U.S. government for
charitable contributions to victims of the
recent Southern California wildfires has been
making the rounds. A link in the e-mail, when
clicked, sends the e-mail recipients to a Web
site that looks like the IRS Web site, but
isn't. They are then directed to click on a link
that opens a donation form that asks for
personal and financial information. The scammers
can use that information to gain access to the
e-mail recipients' financial accounts.
A recent e-mail scam tells taxpayers that the
IRS has calculated their "fiscal activity" and
that they are eligible to receive a tax refund
of a certain amount. Taxpayers receive a page
of, or are sent to, a Web site (titled "Get Your
Tax Refund!") that copies the appearance of the
genuine "Where's My Refund?" interactive page on
the genuine IRS Web site. Like the real "Where's
My Refund?" page, taxpayers are asked to enter
their SSNs and filing status. However, the phony
Web page asks taxpayers to enter their credit
card account numbers instead of the exact amount
of refund as shown on their tax return, as the
real "Where's My Refund?" page does.
In a new phishing scam, an e-mail purporting to
come from the IRS advises taxpayers they can
receive $80 by filling out an online customer
satisfaction survey. In addition to standard
customer satisfaction survey questions, the
survey requests the name and phone number of the
participant and also asks for credit card
information.
In another recent scam, consumers have received
a "Tax Avoidance Investigation" e-mail claiming
to come from the IRS' "Fraud Department" in
which the recipient is asked to complete an
"investigation form," for which there is a link
contained in the e-mail, because of possible
fraud that the recipient committed. It is
believed that clicking on the link may activate
a Trojan Horse.
An e-mail scheme claiming to come from the IRS's
Criminal Investigation division tells the
recipient that they are under a criminal probe
for submitting a false tax return to the
California Franchise Board. The e-mail seeks to
entice people to click on a link or open an
attachment to learn more information about the
complaint against them. The e-mail link and
attachment contain a Trojan Horse that can take
over the person?s computer hard drive and allow
someone to have remote access to the computer.
Another scheme suggests that a customer has
filed a complaint against a company, of which the
e-mail recipient is a member, and that the IRS can
act as an arbitrator. This appears to be aimed at
business as well as individual taxpayers.
-
One e-mail scam, fraught with grammatical errors
and typos, looks like a page from the IRS Web site
and claims to be from the "IRS Antifraud Comission"
(sic), a fictitious group. The e-mail claims someone
has enrolled the taxpayer's credit card in EFTPS and
has tried to pay taxes with it. The e-mail also says
there have been fraud attempts involving the
taxpayer's bank account. The e-mail claims money was
lost and "remaining founds" (sic) are blocked.
Recipients are asked to click on a link that will
help them recover their funds, but the subsequent
site asks for personal information that the thieves
could use to steal the taxpayer?s identity.
-
E-mails claiming to come from tax-refunds@irs.gov,
admin@irs.gov and similar variations told the
recipients that they were eligible to receive a
tax refund for a given amount. It directed
recipients to claim the refund by using a link
contained in the e-mail which sent the recipient
to a Web site. The site, a copy of the IRS Web
site, displayed an interactive page similar to a
genuine IRS one; however, it had been modified
to ask for personal and financial information
that the genuine IRS interactive page does not
require.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA) has found numerous separate
Web sites in at least 20 different countries hosting
variations on this scheme.
-
A bogus IRS letter and Form W-8BEN (Certificate
of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United
States Tax Withholding) asked non-residents to
provide personal information such as account
numbers, PINs, mother?s maiden name and passport
number. The legitimate IRS Form W-8BEN, which is
used by financial institutions to establish
appropriate tax withholding for foreign
individuals, does not ask for any of this
information.
For more information on the various schemes, see the
following:
-
IR-2007-37, Fraudulent Telephone Tax Refunds, Abusive Roth IRAs Top Off 2007 ?Dirty
Dozen? Tax Scams
-
IR-2005-136, IRS Warns of e-Mail Scam About Tax Refunds
-
-
-
To Report Fraud
For other than phishing schemes, you may report
the fraudulent misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or
other IRS property by calling the TIGTA toll-free
hotline at 1-800-366-4484 or visiting the
TIGTA Web site.
Other Federal Resources
For more information on understanding and preventing
identity theft and suspicious e-mails (phishing), or
dealing with their aftermath, check out the following
federal resources:
|
|
