Posted on 02/06/2006 7:28:11 AM PST by steelcurtain
My spouse just received the following email which appears to be phishing for credit card info.
Subject: Refund notice
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:46:19 +0100 (CET)
From: support@irs.gov
To: xxx@xxxxx.xxx
You filed your tax return and you're expecting a refund. You have just one question and you want the answer now - Where's My Refund? Access this secure Web site to find out if the IRS received your return and whether your refund was processed and sent to you.
New program enhancements allow you to begin a refund trace online if you have not received your check within 28 days from the original IRS mailing date. Some of you will also be able to correct or change your mailing address within this application if your check was returned to us as undelivered by the U.S. Postal Service. “Where’s My Refund?” will prompt you when these features are available for your situation.
To get to your refund status, you'll need to provide the following information as shown on your return:
Your first and last name
Your Social Security Number (or IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number)
Your Credit Card Information (for the successful complete of the process)
Okay now, Where's My Refund?
Note: If you have trouble while using this application, please check the Requirements to make sure you have the correct browser software for this application to function properly and check to make sure our system is available.
Obvious Phishing scam. The actual 'where's my refund' site on irs.gov doesn't ask for your cc number:
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp
Can you view the header of the email, and post the originating IP address (or the entire header, excluding your email address)?
Here's one good question to ask yourself: why would the IRS have your wife's e-mail address, let alone be sending out unsolicited notices to that address? The answer is: they wouldn't.
The email purported to come from irs.gov. I cut and pasted here the entire message that my spouse received and forwarded to me.
Exactly. The odd thing is that yesterday I e-filed our federal and state tax returns via TurboTax, but used MY email address. So why did this phony IRS email turn up the next day in my spouse's email, which wasn't anywhere on our return? Strange coincidence?
Send 'em via FreepMail.
Gee, thanks! :)
"Strange coincidence?"
Do you share a static IP address with your wife?
Hey, look what I found:
Tax Time Spawns Scams
By Lana F. Flowers
The Morning News
Add identity theft, stolen refund checks and withheld refunds to the numerous frustrations of tax time. The Internal Revenue Service is not the only entity interested in your mothers' maiden name, credit card and Social Security numbers and other personal information. Scam artists perpetuate e-mail scams, known as "phishing," trying to get people to give personal and financial information, so scammers can commit identity theft. Thieves may watch mailboxes to steal refund or Social Security checks.
And if you don't receive the expected refund, don't always blame a miscreant. The IRS, possibly suspicious of your filing, might be holding your refund.
Tax refunds may be fertile ground for fraud because there are so many returns filed. The IRS reports 133.93 million individual tax returns were filed in 2005, a 1.3 percent increase from the 132.2 million refunds filed in 2004, the IRS reported. The average tax refund was $2,171 in 2005, a 2.1 percent increase from the 2004 average tax refund of $2,126, according to the IRS.
Consumers can protect themselves from tax schemes by not taking phishing bait or by calling the IRS to check the status of refunds.
Tax Phishing
The tax refund phishing scam starts with an e-mail, which appears to originate from taxrefunds@irs.gov. The e-mail tells recipients they may be owed a federal tax refund.
Mike Beebe, Arkansas attorney general, recently warned Arkansans about a specific e-mail scam that uses official sounding language about tax laws. A link in the e-mail purports to take consumers to a secure Web site, where they can enter financial information and account numbers. Beebe said it's a trick to steal consumers' money. "Like other government agencies, the IRS does not send you an e-mail out of the blue asking for your personal information," Beebe said in a statement.
I'm a Good American and paid taxes on the $54,647,645,873,536.23 that I'm due to get from Nigeria.
Any day now.
Cautionary ping to all who may receive such an email.
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