IRS Alerts against Latest E-mail Scam Fooling Users on its Name

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is alerting its users about a latest e-mail scam that appears to be a legitimate official mail, but may turn out hazardous for the recipients and their PCs, as per the security reports.

Reports assert that the fake e-mail stated a refund is due to the IRS. But actually, it infects the system of the user by downloading a virus. Consequently, all the personal details of the user are hacked.

The IRS spokeswoman, Dianne Besunder, said that the people are constantly receiving the e-mails purporting to be coming from the IRS and asking the recipients to respond to receive a tax refund, an Economic Stimulus payment and also, a phony notice of an anticipated tax audit, as reported by NORTH COUNTRY gazette on November 18, 2008.

Besunder added that IRS does not send such e-mails regarding the taxes of the users. Thus, the recipients should not respond to these e-mails asserting to be from the IRS and directing them to some IRS website. They are also advised to avoid opening any attachment within the e-mail as it may be malevolent and could infect the PCs.

IRS recommends the users, who have already fallen into the trap of scammers and have revealed all their sensitive details, should instantly take measures to protect themselves from identity theft.

Security experts stated that the IRS gives information on its official website to ensure the safety of the personal and financial details of the taxpayers. Users are just required to enter 'Identity Theft' in keyword search feature to obtain more information. This can facilitate the closure of the scam attacks and thus, protecting several other users from being defrauded.

The IRS further stated that if any user receives a doubtful e-mail, purporting from the IRS, he should immediately forward it to "phishing@irs.gov" following the instructions listed at this mailing ID, otherwise the encoding required to track the source of the e-mail will get lost. This will help the IRS to warn the concerned authorities and to pin down this illicit business of defrauding the Internet users.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 12/3/2008