The Friday Flyer, February 15, 2008 - Article: It's tax season

Public Notices - DBA Info • CONTACT US: News Department • Display Advertising • Classified Advertising

It's tax season - IRS warns of taxpayer scams

By Bonnie Terk
Reporter

     The Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers to beware of some new e-mail and telephone scams that makes it appear as though the IRS is contacting the recipient regarding rebates, alleged refunds, audits and more. Such scams try to lure taxpayers into giving bank account, credit card or personal information.
     “Under no circumstances will the IRS send proactive e-mails to taxpayers alerting them to refunds, audits or anything similar,” according to Raphael Tulino, with IRS Media Relations.
     The goal of most e-mail and telephone scammers is to gain access to personal information for identity theft and to have access to bank and credit card accounts for the purpose of emptying the unsuspecting taxpayers financial accounts, obtaining loans, filing fraudulent tax returns and conducting other crimes. Most of the fraudulent activity can be conducted electronically in a short amount of time but can take the victim months or even years to clean up the financial destruction.
     There are several e-mail scams circulating. Some prompt the recipient to click on links for changes to tax law; however, the IRS believes that by clicking the links, “malware” is downloaded onto the recipient’s computer. Malware is malicious code that can take over the victim’s computer hard drive, allowing access to passwords and other personal information. The urls contained in the links are not legitimate IRS web addresses.
     All IRS.gov web page addresses begin with http://www.irs.gov/. Anyone wishing to access the IRS website should initiate contact by typing the IRS.gov address into their internet address window, rather than clicking on a link in an e-mail or by opening an attachment.
     Other e-mail scams falsely claiming to come from the IRS tell the recipients they are eligible for a refund. They instruct recipients to click on a link to access a refund claim form, which asks for personal and banking information.
     Filing a tax return is the only way to apply for a tax refund, according to the IRS. Residents wondering if they are due a tax refund from their last annual tax return filing can visit the official IRS website at www.irs.gov and use the “Where’s My Refund?” interactive application.
     Some taxpayers have been duped by advance payment and rebate lures in which the caller states that they need the taxpayer’s bank account information for direct deposit and, if the target refuses, they are told they cannot receive the rebate. The IRS does not gather personal information by telephone, according to their scam warning, issued January 30.
     The IRS has established an e-mail mailbox specifically for taxpayers to forward questionable e-mails and requests the e-mails be forwarded to phishing@irs.gov. Information regarding telephone calls can be sent to the same mailbox.
     The IRS has also published an article titled, “How to Protect Yourself from Suspicious E-mails or Phishing Schemes,” which can be found on its website by typing “phishing,” “identity,” or “e-mail scams” into the search box on the home page at www.irs.gov.