IRS Cautions Taxpayers of New Phishing E-mail Scam

As per the news published in wavy on July 10, 2009, the Internet Revenue Service (IRS) has issued a new e-mail scam warning.

The e-mail claims to give a tax refund of over $200 to the recipient, but asks for his credit card details. Attributing the present e-mail scam as a phishing e-mail, officials at the IRS Criminal Investigation Division have claimed that the e-mail recipients might lose money.

The Government Tax Agency has said that do not open any suspicious e-mail which claims to be from the IRS with the subject line: "Tax Refund Number."

Patrick Robertson, an Official at the IRS's "Criminal Investigations Division," states that the IRS does not interact with the taxpayers through e-mail. He further adds that the IRS does not ask for passwords or pin number or any other credit card details or financial information from taxpayers via e-mail, as reported by wavy on July 10, 2009.

He also said that taxpayers getting such e-mails should not open any links or attachments and forward them to "phishing@irs.gov." This is vital to trace culprits involved in such type of scams.

Meanwhile, IRS has issued some security instructions to taxpayers to be caution of such phishing scams. To begin with, users hit by such phishing e-mails should instantly change their usernames and passwords to dodge ID theft.

In addition, IRS has numerous sources to inform taxpayers about ID theft on the IRS website "IRS.gov." On this website, web surfers can find details - how they can report scams and phony IRS sites. Web surfers can also access the IRS Identity Theft Resource Page that could be found by typing Identity Theft Resource Page in the search box on the home page of IRS.gov.

IRS has also revealed that web users can visit the FTC or 'Federal Trade Commission' which helps taxpayers with ID theft issues. Taxpayers can look for help by contacting the helpline numbers- 877-ID-THEFT (877-438-4338).

Security experts add that the phishing scams are increasing at a rapid pace and it has become crucial for web users to discover what security dangers they may face by surfing the World Wide Web and how to dodge them.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 7/28/2009