Phishing E-mail Purports to be From IRS

According to IRS (Internal Revenue Service), an e-mail message aimed at the US taxpayers is making rounds on the Internet.

The e-mail directs the recipient to furnish his personal details in an attached form and then fax it to the IRS to avoid paying extra taxes.

Security officials at IRS state that phishers always have something new to launch. While the IRS type of scams direct recipients to follow a link to enter their personal information, a practice called phishing, the scammers are using this as their latest technique to grab users' information.

According to David Stewart, Spokesman for IRS, the details are clearly going to the person who wants to utilize them for stealing identity and committing fraud, as reported by readingeagle on February 20, 2009.

In addition, describing the new phishing method as quite clever and interesting, Stewart stated that the twist is in appending IRS documents. He said that the IRS would never ask for passwords, PINs, bank account or social security numbers.

Meanwhile, according to reports, IRS became aware of the phishing scam in early January 2009 and since then, it has been working towards destroying it. But, as often happens, the perpetrators change the sender's address of their phishing e-mails, Stewart said.

Besides, IRS officials advised anyone suspecting e-mail claiming to be from the agency may alert the same by sending the message to phishing@irs.gov. In addition, to know anything about phishing, IRS has directed users to contact at 610-478-6292, or e-mail to help-desk employee Mary Young at myoung@readingeagle.com.

Furthermore, IRS has also issued certain guidelines for e-mail recipients to help them recognize phishing scams related to the IRS. Accordingly, users need to watch out for grammar and spelling mistakes, unprofessional designs, or use of 'dot gov' in the URL, which most certainly implies that it is a fraudulent phishing site.

Further, with the economic recession is still going on in the United States and a similar stimulus package coming from the newly formed government, IRS warns taxpayers to be particularly vigilant of campaigns, which promise tax rebates.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/3/2009