Tax Scams Targeting Non-Resident Aliens

The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) is reporting that even though the last date for filing taxes expired on April 15, 2009, people are still being hooked with phishing scams.

One unsolicited, phishing e-mail that is being circulated, claiming to be from IRS, displays two attachments. One of these attachments shows a message on the IRS letterhead, notifies "non-resident aliens" that they have been relieved from the federal tax reporting as well as withholding, and the way they could take advantage of the exemption is by filing Form W-4100B2.

The other enclosure provides the form i.e. 'Form W-4100B2' itself that requests for personal information such as birth place and date, bank account and Social Security numbers of the recipient. Further, it solicits similar details about the recipient's spouse.

Additionally, the phishing scammers are also dispatching other cover-up e-mails that ask for private information, which they could subsequently use for stealing the users' identity as well as to rob them of their bank or credit card accounts, said Mark Green, Spokesman for IRS. Ledger-Enquirer published this on April 15, 2009.

Discovering the above phishing e-mails, the IRS once again reminded that it wouldn't ever send an uninvited e-mail to any taxpayer as well as it wouldn't request any taxpayer to provide personal information through e-mail.

Doug Shulman, Commissioner at IRS, said that taxpayers need to know about scams so that they do not get misguided by the tax-exemption schemes that appear so unrealistic, particularly in the current challenging economic situation. FoxBusiness published this on April 14, 2009.

Mr. Shulman added that people need to keep themselves wary of any person selling such scams.

Meanwhile, IRS states that any uninvited e-mail claiming to be from the agency should alert recipients that it is a phisher's e-mail and that it should be reported to phishing@irs.gov.

Moreover, for any queries regarding phishing, taxpayers as well as non-taxpayers have been asked to contact the IRS at its helpline numbers. Also, IRS has drawn a 'Dirty Dozen' catalog of the 2009 tax scams on its website, to inform users of the frauds that could trap them while depositing their tax in 2009.

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» SPAMfighter News - 4/21/2009