PHOENIX - The Internal Revenue Service has issued a warning about a phishing scam that they want consumers to watch out for.
Emails are circulating that claim to be from the IRS and lure victims in by telling them that they are due a tax refund.
The IRS does not send out unsolicited emails or ask for detailed personal and financial information.
The IRS also tells 3 On Your Side that it never asks people for PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.
In fact, the IRS does not discuss tax account matters with taxpayers by email.
Some of these emails, experts say, are sophisticated and look legitimate.
How to Spot a Scam
-Requests detailed or an unusual amount of personal and/or financial information, such as name, SSN, bank or credit card account numbers or security-related information, such as mother’s maiden name.
-Dangles bait to get the recipient to respond to the e-mail, such as mentioning a tax refund or offering to pay the recipient to participate in an IRS survey.
-Threatens a consequence for not responding to the e-mail, such as additional taxes or blocking access to the recipient’s funds.
-Uses a really long address in any link contained in the e-mail message or one that does not start with the actual IRS Web site address (www.irs.gov). To see the actual address, or url, move the mouse over the link included in the text of the e-mail.
If you receive a suspicious email claiming to come from the IRS, take the following steps:
-Do not open any attachments in case they contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
-Do not click on any links.
-Beware that the links often connect to a phony IRS Web site that appears authentic and then prompts the victim for personal identifiers, bank or credit card account numbers or PINs. The phony web site may appear legitimate because the appearance and much of the content are directly copied from an actual page on the IRS Web site and then modified by the scammers.
-Forward the suspicious e-mail or url address to the IRS mailbox phishing@irs.gove then delete the e-mail from your inbox.
3 On Your Side and the IRS want to stress that the only genuine IRS Web site is IRS.gov
All IRS.gov web page addresses begin with http://www.irs.gov
Anyone who wishes to contact the IRS 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 you can call 1-800-829-1040.
Bottom line, remain vigilant.
Rest assured that the real IRS won’t be contacting you by e-mail anytime soon.
