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BBB Cautions Users of IRS & Jury Duty Frauds

Every holiday season in general brings thieves, making it a little less enjoyable, but the current year (2008) is even worse. According to recent reports, the BBB (Better Business Bureau) is warning internet users of more thieves looking to capture people's identity; therefore, asking them to beware of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) as well as jury duty frauds, as reported by wtoctv on December 19, 2008.

Security experts state that sometimes it is difficult to forget the extent of trouble one may get into while opening incoming e-mail. Accordingly, BBB says that there might be someone on the opposite end, attempting to say that the recipient slipped jury duty; therefore, an arrest warning would be issued to him if he failed to respond with personal information through return e-mail.

However, the idea of slipping jury duty is improbable, said President of BBB, Ross Howard, but people are falling victim to the scam, as reported by wtoctv on December 19, 2008.

Also, just as jury duty, security experts are cautioning people of someone posing to be from the IRS in e-mail. Again such e-mails should be ignored, they are illegitimate and unsolicited.

Nevertheless, Howard says that in the foremost, the IRS knows the identity of every citizen such as their social security number; the agency keeps all records of people paying taxes. Therefore, the IRS does not send an e-mail to anyone for anything personal.

Joe Munoz, Spokesperson of IRS, states that if any recipient has opened an attachment or clicked on a link in a fraudulent e-mail, it might have let the phishing scammer to load malware on his/her computer. In such an instance, the person must immediately run anti-malware software to scan for spyware and viruses, as reported by dosmundos on December 18, 2008.

Munoz said that the e-mail should be forwarded to IRS.gov with the help of special instructions to preserve the encoding from beng lost that is important for tracing its source.

In addition, the IRS informs users that details of tax scams could be obtained from www.irs.gov by clicking on the "Dirty Dozen" section, which the IRS updates for various tax scams each year.

Related article: BBA Outlines Steps To Ward Off Online Fraud

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