Phishing Season is Around, Scams of Income Tax will Appear

State Spokesman for the Internet Revenue Service (IRS), David Stewart, said that scammers have become extremely clever. As the number of scams reaches new heights in tax season, scammers will play the game of refund with people again and again, as reported by timesleader on March 1, 2008.

David also declared that the scam has spread immensely throughout the nation in such a destructive manner that one can easily use the word "pandemic" for the situation.

Security experts informed that phishing scams began three years back, when mails termed as "phishing" started coming at the time when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent mail to its customers. The mails asked users to divulge PINs, credit details, bank account and private data. The first series of these kinds of mails proved disastrous for those users who spare one minute to read them.

David also added that earlier, there were spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in the mail but in 2008, the mails will be more appropriate and sophisticated, as reported by timesleader.

He also informed that spammers prefer to prey on the fear of IRS for Americans and naivet regarding what step IRS will take if required contacting the users.

David, while cautioning the users, said that they will never like to contact the users with an e-mail. It will be a rare case if they will call on phone and ask for any credit details, PIN or routing number.

David also suggested people to inform the local IRS officer in case they get an e-mail or call of such types. He also urged the users not to click on any link given inside that mail or to reply. Instead, they should forward that e-mail to phishing@irs.gov.

Head of Fraud Prevention Unit at the District Attorney's Office, Stacie Harris, said that the similar types of scams are noted in other areas also. She informed that scammers pose as the agents of IRS and mail their victims, informing them that their mails need to be audited and they should fill a form for it demanding private banking information.

Related article: Phishing With A Redirector Code

» SPAMfighter News - 3/11/2008