IRS Phishing Scam
An e-mail scam is circulating claiming to be from the IRS telling taxpayers that they are eligible to receive a tax refund of a certain amount (see sample below). Taxpayers are sent to a web site and are asked to enter their SSNs, filing status and credit card account numbers.
Please note, the IRS never initiates taxpayer communication through e-mail. All IRS.gov web page addresses begin with http://www.irs.gov/. Always exercise caution when you receive unsolicited e-mails or e-mails from senders you don’t know.
If you do get email of questionable content claiming to come from the IRS do not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the e-mails. Instead, forward the e-mails to phishing@irs.gov (follow these instructions).
More information about phishing scams and how to protect yourself from them can be found on the ITS Phishing Information page.
Last Updated: 04/24/2008