Fake Government Agencies
IRS Scams - Fake Refund Email from the Internal Revenue Service
United States
Department of the Treasury
Have you received a email from the IRS, telling you that "After the last
annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are
eligible to receive a tax refund of $___"; then instructing you to "access
your tax refund, click here"?
It is a scam. The IRS will never, never email you unless you first
contact them. They WILL NOT EVER email you to tell you you owe money or
are due to receive a refund; or for any other reason. Count on it.
If you hold your mouse over the "click here" link, you would see that it does
NOT go to the IRS, but instead to a page on
http://woodbridge-mills.co.uk which
is clearly operating a scam and a fraud. We neutered the link in case it harbors
a virus, but for thos who want to investigate it further here it is as text:
http://woodbridge-mills.co.uk/catalog/images/mail/.secure/.server/online_form/irs/0,,id=96596,00.html
We highlighted a few of the obvious signs (beyond that described above) that
this is a scam. In general, notice the spelling mistakes, the "best regards"
(obviously form someone who never dealt ith the IRS) and
the absurd phrases, like a copyright for a government form letter. It sounds like a couple of uneducated idiot criminals
in Africa wrote it. And that would be because they did.
Sample Scam FBI Email:
January 15, 2008, CFR received the following email:
From:
Internal Revenue Service
Sent:
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 2:02 AM
Subject:
Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
United
States Department of the Treasury
After
the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have
determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-9 days in order to
process it.
A refund can
be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
To access your tax refund, please
click here
Best Regards,
Tax Refund Deparment
Internal Revenue Service
© Copyright 2008, Internal
Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.
Recommendations:
If you receive a call from this number or any group that claims to represent
a government agency, take down their information, including
the contact's name, phone number, etc. Do NOT give them any personal or
financial information, especially not a credit card, checking or bank account
number, passport number, etc.
Next, look up the direct phone or email address for the agency they
claim to represent and call them. Read them the email and ask if it could
have come from their agency.
While we don't want to encourage people to ignore correspondence from legal
government agencies, it is a safe bet that NO U.S. government agency will make
any first contact with you by email. Certainly not the FBI or IRS.
The IRS
offers this advice:
If you receive an unsolicited e-mail purporting to be from the IRS, take the
following steps:
-
Do not open any attachments to the e-mail, in case they contain
malicious code that will infect your computer.
-
Contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine whether the IRS is trying
to contact you about a tax refund.
And please let us know about any
suspicious calls or emails you receive. We look for patterns so that we
can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!
How to Report a Tax Refund Scam Email:
If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS,
- Forward it to the IRS
(phishing@irs.gov and
- Send a copy to ConsumerFraudReporting.org (via
the feedback form)
- Please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint at
www.ic3.gov
and
Follow instructions in the link below for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure
that it retains critical elements found in the original e-mail. The IRS can use
the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you send to trace the
hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites.
Unfortunately, due to the expected volume, the IRS will not be able to
acknowledge receipt or respond to you.
In the United States, you may also contact:
U.S. Secret Service
Financial Crimes Division
1800 G Street, NW
Room 942
Washington, DC 20223
Phone: (202) 435–5850
Fax: (202) 435–5031
Or contact the local U.S. Secret Service Field Office.
Frequently Asked Questions - 1.13
IRS Procedures: Reporting Fraud
How to Report Abusive Tax Promotions and/or Promoters:
Complete the
referral form which documents the information necessary to report an
abusive tax avoidance scheme. The form can be mailed or faxed to the IRS address
and fax number on the form.
How to Report Abusive CPAs, Attorneys or Enrolled Agents:
Report suspicious actions by tax professionals to the
email address of the IRS Office of
Professional Responsibility.
Overseas
Contact the Foreign Commercial Service (FSC) at the nearest U.S.
Embassy or Consulate. If there is no FCS office, contact the American Citizens
Services Unit of the Consular Section or the Regional Security Office.
For a comprehensive list
of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.
***
| 
