Beware Of Current IRS Scam, No Internet Required

irs scamBy Ron Benvenisti. Scammers are kicking into high gear during this tax season. This time of the year there typically is a spike in phishing attacks that appear to come from the Internal Revenue Service. You don’t need to have the Internet to become a victim of the latest scam because it makes the rounds via email. The email (and in some cases via phone or even legitimate looking regular mail warns of discrepancies on the your income tax return and requests that personal information be sent via fax to a toll-free number.
 
This new phishing operation which began sometime in the last 24 hours is made to look like it was sent from [email protected], and urges recipients to fill out, print, and fax an attached PDF tax form. The email reads like this:
 
“This is in reference to your 2010 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return we seem to have some discrepancies with your filing. If you have already filed for your 2010 tax refund please get hold of a new form 1040 and mail it to the Department of the Treasury in your region.”
 
“If for any reason you have not yet filed for your 2010 Individual Income Tax Return please print out the attached PDF form, fill it out and fax it to the IRS data center at (866) 513-7982 within 24 hours.”
 
“This has no bearing on your 2010 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, this to update our data and survey while we prepare to close the 2010 tax filing season.”
 
“Thank you.”
 
At this time the 866- phone number is returning a fast-busy signal, which indicates the line is unavailable because a lot of people are falling for this scam, or that anti-scammers are speed-dialing the number to prevent would-be victims from faxing in the forms. The sophisticated scam is probably automated so that the faxes are scanned and then emails the phishers copies of the scanned images containing all your personal information like your Social Security number, e-File PIN and adjusted gross income, all of which are crucial pieces of information that the IRS uses to authenticate taxpayers. (And can be used for Identity Theft).
 
While the IRS has noted that it may conduct follow-up correspondence with taxpayers via email only if the taxpayer chooses to communicate that way, otherwise the IRS will never reach out to taxpayers via email. Consumers can report any tax-related phishing scams to [email protected]. TLS.

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