IRS Warns New Yorkers against Phishing E-mail

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US-tax agency, released a warning on April 28, 2010 for New Yorkers to be careful of phishing e-mails purporting to have come from IRS.

Phishing is a malicious activity in which hackers try to grab the personal information of internet user like username, password, credit card number by giving an impression that they represent a legitimate organization.

Dianne Besunder, IRS Spokeswoman, New York, said that over 5.9 Million people had filed their return online this year. As the e-tax filing was quite popular among people, some assumed that IRS had been trying to establish contact with them about tax related matter, as reported by Syracuse on April 28, 2010.

Besunder further said that if IRS had to ask anything from the taxpayer regarding income tax returns, then it would contact him through conventional way of communication i.e. snail mail.

Snail mail is generally used for the communication mode through postal service. As the name implies, the delivery of mail takes place at a pace of snail compared to high speed e-mail.

Besunder further said that if any Internet users had received e-mail claiming to represent IRS, then he should not follow the instructions given in e-mail like replying to the e-mail, opening of an attachment and clicking of any link. In fact, the opening of an attachment, or clicking on link in scam e-mail might expose the user's computer to malicious code.

In order to avoid falling victim to the malicious scam e-mails, security experts have advised to follow some simple steps. These steps include - forward the URL or spam e-mail to IRS mail address, phishing@irs.gov, and then delete the e-mail from the inbox.

Besides, the user could install spam filters on his system that would ensure the filtering of fake IRS related e-mail from entering into the inbox. The user could also activate the option of never seeing the e-mail in the inbox, which will forward the IRS mail directly into the SPAM folder. Apart from this, the installation of anti-malware, antivirus, anti-spyware provides protection against the infection of computer on opening of malicious link.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 5/10/2010