IRS Warns of Constantly Plundering Phishing Scams

According to recent news, Internal Revenue Service is cautioning surfers of the Internet that phishing scammers are constantly attempting to use the economic stimulus scheme of the federal government to steal personal information from the end-users.

Further, to help users from not becoming easy baits of phishers, IRS is suggesting that recipients of unsolicited or suspicious e-mail should forward the messages to a certain site and then delete them from mailboxes.

Meanwhile, according to reports received earlier, a doubtful e-mail had reached the address news4@claremoreprogress.com. However, grammatical mistakes and spelling errors helped the security researchers to conceive that it was possibly a part of a phishing campaign.

The IRS said that phishing relates to a scam in which online fraudsters dispatch e-mails to trick unwary victims into divulging their financial and other private information that helps in stealing the latter's identity, as reported by TMCnet on July 11, 2008.

Also, according to IRS, the present phishing scam includes fake e-mails purporting to have come from the agency and enticing victims into doing what the message directs by falsely telling them that a tax rebate awaits them.

The agency also noted that the fraudsters had released an announcement on the IRS Website saying that the Internal Revenue Service had issued a number of consumer warnings lately. According to the announcement, these warnings cautioned about the misuse of IRS name and logo by scammers attempting to reach end-users' financial information to capture their identity and to steal their assets. But this announcement, according to IRS, is simply a part of a junk message.

And to aid the consumer to play safe, IRS is repeatedly warning that if anyone receives a doubtful e-mail that pretends to have come from the IRS, he or she may forward it to phishing@irs.gov, the new e-mail address of the IRS.

IRS is also reminding consumers that it never asks for any kind of private information over e-mail, and thus never sends e-mails requesting users to provide their passwords or likewise, the access details for payment cards or bank accounts, and PIN numbers as the process could aid in phishing scams.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 7/30/2008