IRS Warns Dallas Taxpayers about Phishing E-mail

Dallas IRS (Internal Revenue Service) released a warning for taxpayers in the end week of May 2009 about an e-mail scam after getting complaints that a phishing e-mail had been hitting the inboxes of taxpayers in Dallas, USA.

The reports state that the phony e-mail in the name of IRS tries to dupe unsuspecting victims into divulging their private details that fraudsters could subsequently use to gain unauthorized entry into those victims' bank or credit card accounts.

A particular phishing e-mail dispatched on May 29, 2009 told the recipient that after previous yearly computation of his financial transactions, it was found that the user was eligible for a tax reimbursement under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c) (3), for an estimated amount of $189.60.

The e-mail further says that the recipient could submit his request for the tax reimbursement and IRS would take 6-9 days for processing it. In case, the reimbursement does not arrive within 9 working days, the recipient could begin tracing the refund online, the e-mail suggests.

Additionally, to claim the tax reimbursement, the e-mail asks the recipient to follow a given link.

In the end, the e-mail says that the US Department of Treasury's bureau (the Internal Revenue Service) has sent the e-mail to the recipient on behalf of Director Exempt John Stewart for Organizations Rulings and Agreement Letter, Internal Revenue Service.

The security researchers state that certain details within the phishing message give it a purely authentic and sophisticated appearance. In fact, distinguishing the fake e-mail from a real one could prove quite difficult.

Meanwhile, it is understood that many residents, alert about their tax submission, have forwarded over 33,000 of the phishing e-mails to IRS, while over 1,500 separate scams prevail till date.

Clay Sanford, Spokesman for IRS office in Dallas, states that the topic of tax refund is pretty exciting and big, as reported by watchdogblog.dallasnews on June 2, 2009.

Therefore, IRS repeated that the agency never contacts taxpayers regarding issues of tax over e-mail. If consumers have any queries, they could contact the IRS at the toll-free number, 1-800-829-1040.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 6/9/2009