IRS Warned Oregon’s Internet Users against Phishing Scam

Attorney General Office in Oregon (US) has released a warning for Internet users against an identity theft scam that involves a phony e-mail representing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as reported by KMTR on April 10, 2009.

This phishing e-mail scam is aimed at tricking the recipient to reveal his tax identification number and bank account number.

According to the reports, the e-mail contains information about an attractive scheme that asks the recipient to participate in a survey and earn $90 by answering to a few questions. In fact, the e-mail appears legitimate as it bears the official logo of IRS.

Meanwhile, IRS has criticized the people behind the scam and has informed online users that it doesn't conduct such kind of surveys. IRS has also alerted people that such e-mails may rise in number as the tax filing season is on.

Apart from the tax related phishing e-mails, pop-ups to fake websites that offer service of filling tax online are also rising. They trick users to furnish bank account information for automatically transferring the alleged money into their accounts. However, these websites steal the personal information which later on used for identity fraud and other malicious activities.

Thus, IRS has asked online users to avoid replying e-mails claiming to represent the organization as they are sent by phishers.

The organization has recommended that any person receiving the e-mail forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. The organization has requested recipients to forward the e-mail with Internet header as it contains valuable information that can be used to locate the sender.

E-mail recipients should delete the message after sending it to the IRS.

Moreover, the IRS has welcomed those recipients, who have not been affected by the identity theft yet but feel that they could be the victim of phishers in future, can provide their identity proof to the organization.

Citing above warning as an example, the IRS has suggested users to be very cautious about their personal as well as financial details as loosing them could be huge lose and it would be very difficult to get their identity back.

Related article: IRS Cautions Taxpayers of Recent Email Scam

» SPAMfighter News - 4/16/2009