IRS reports increase in e-mail scams

With the annual tax deadline looming tomorrow night, it might not seem too odd to receive an e-mail from the Internal Revenue Service.

The communication, sent to some area residents in the last few days, included attachments that appeared quite official.

But the IRS wasn't the sender.

If it's tax season, IRS spokesman William Cressman said yesterday, it also is tax-scam season. "We don't send out unsolicited e-mails, and we don't ask for personal account information," he said.

One of the two attachments looked like a tax form and asked recipients to fax crucial information, including Social Security, bank account, and personal identification numbers, along with a photocopy of a passport or U.S. driver's license.

Cressman took one look at the e-mail and labeled it a classic phishing scam. Phishing is how identity thieves score information they can use to raid bank accounts. They scour the Internet for e-mail addresses and then send out tens of thousands of e-mail messages, using spam mail marketing techniques to request private financial information.

Scam artists "are counting on the rule of numbers," Cressman said. "If they send out tens of thousands, most of them are going to people who won't be conned. But they might get a few."

Cressman said the IRS received thousands of examples of phishing e-mail messages each year and they often have several standard characteristics:

Because many of these scams originate in foreign countries, the English in the communications may be stilted. There will likely be subtle spelling, grammar and punctuation errors, or the tone will be slightly off for a government document. Most lifelong, educated English speakers will probably spot the mistakes, but others, including immigrants, may be confused.

The scams often parrot IRS terms in the news. For example, some phishing scams are now talking about helping taxpayers claim their "recovery rebate credit," a legitimate credit, although taxpayers do not need outside help to get it.

They often twist some arcane, yet legitimate, provision of the tax code. For example, there are certain credits for people of foreign status.

"They'll say: 'We have your money. Just give us your account number and we'll deposit it,' " Cressman said.

Cressman said the pace of phishing scams picked up toward the end of tax season.

"People do have a natural concern about getting correspondence from the IRS, and that makes them more willing to respond to a notice even when their common sense suggests they shouldn't," he said.

"Con artists aren't stupid," he said. "They realize they can use the authority of the IRS [to trick people]. They can do it in the last few days, when people are thinking about taxes. People are facing a deadline, so maybe they are feeling some pressure to react."

The IRS may not be able to catch the scammers if they are operating from another country. But the IRS, in cooperation with federal law-enforcement agencies, can often shut down their pathway through the Internet, he said.

Here's what you should

do if you suspect you are being "phished" for personal financial information via

a bogus IRS e-mail:

Remember that the Internal Revenue Service does

not initiate communication through e-mail, nor does

it ask for bank-account numbers.

Do not reply to an e-mail claiming to be from the IRS.

Do not open attachments in that e-mail. They may contain viruses.

Do not click on Web links they contain, even if they appear to direct you to an IRS site. Instead, close the e-mail and type in the official agency address, www.irs.gov. Don't cut and paste the address.

Be aware that the address for all IRS Web pages begins with http://www.irs.gov./

Forward the suspicious e-mail to phishing@irs.gov because it can help the IRS trace the source. Then delete the bogus e-mail.

SOURCE: Internal Revenue Service

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