Phishers Circulating Fake IRS E-mails

Scammers pretending as the representatives of Internal Revenue Service are tricking innocent Internet users into revealing their personal details, as reported by SouthCoastTODAY.com on April 8, 2009.

This unsolicited phishing e-mail informs recipients of their being eligible for a tax refund valued at $189.60. To claim for the refund, users are asked to click on the link that will provide them access to a form.

The phishing e-mail appealed the recipients to submit the request for tax refund and allow them 6-9 days so as to allow them to IWP the received data.

However, sender of this fake e-mail claims himself to be an IRS representative, but the e-mail ID of that person is neither carrying the extension "IRS" nor the extension ".gov" which is associated with the government agencies.

Peggy Riley, IRS Spokeswoman in New England, stated that usually, IRS do not communicate via e-mail and confirmed that IRS had not sent any e-mail regarding tax refund, as per the news of SouthCoastTODAY.com on April 8, 2009.

Considering that the phishing e-mails are still pouring into users' inboxes, IRS has issued a warning, stating that the phishers could exploit users' personal details, thereby leading to identity theft.

IRS advised users to avoid responding to such unsolicited e-mails they are just phishing e-mails. It also recommended recipients that they should avoid cutting or pasting any link given in these e-mails into their browsers. This is because phishers can so cleverly make the link appear as if it will direct users to a genuine link while in actual, the link will forward users to some malicious site.

Users have also been asked to be very cautious while downloading a file from any e-mail or opening an e-mail attachment, regardless of their source; however, best option is to delete such e-mails.

Moreover, the agency recommended users to use anti-spyware and anti-virus applications and to keep them regularly updated in order to avoid receiving phishing e-mails. Such e-mails should immediately be forwarded to the government's official websites and also to the agency which is mimicked in fake the e-mail.

Related article: Phishers Expand Their Sphere of Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 4/11/2009