Vermont Residents Alerted About Phishing Scam

William Sorrell, Attorney General of Vermont (USA) is alerting residents that they must ignore an e-mail phishing scam that purporting to be from the Internal Revenue Service is circulating on the Net in Vermont. Fox44News published this on August 3, 2009.

As explain experts, phishing is the practice of obtaining people's private information through fraudulent claims of being someone from a legitimate entity.

The current scam, according to Sorrell, starts whilst a consumer gets an uninvited e-mail, which shows the IRS' official symbol, or an IRS tax auditor's name and displays an e-mail address apparently of the agency and states that the recipient is entitled to get a tax re-imbursement.

Also, a link is provided that leads to a form, asking for the user's financial and other personal information.

However, Sorrell notes that the Internal Revenue Service doesn't ever contact taxpayers through electronic communication. According to him, consumers who would reply to the phishing e-mail could be victimized in theft of identity or money.

Thus, the AG's office has urged residents neither to click any link pointing to seemingly legitimate websites nor view any attachment, arriving through unsolicited e-mails. The office further advised people against submitting their financial or personal details on any website that is unsolicited.

Furthermore, the IRS has recently alerted of a dubious e-mail that posing as a message from the Internal Revenue Service uses the caption, "Tax Refund Number" and offers $200 as a tax reimbursement in return for the user's credit card details.

Meanwhile, scam e-mails trying to phish users' personal information have been circulating starting from the year 2006 and have of late increased speedily. Also, the majority of the fraudulent e-mails originate from countries which are poor in English spelling and grammar.

Moreover, the scams are making the rounds all over the country. In related news, someone in Mainville (Pennsylvania) got an e-mail message that claimed to present a notification from the IRS and stated that the person was entitled to a $1092.50 tax refund. The e-mail then directed the recipient to click a link and submit her credit card, bank account and Social Security numbers.

Related article: Vermount Man Charged for Sending Sexual Messages, Images to Teenager

» SPAMfighter News - 8/19/2009