If you’re one of the millions of people who qualified for tax rebates as a part of the government’s economic stimulus package, you need to be aware of several dubious phishing scams that are trying to take advantage of this recent development through the fraudulent use of the IRS name within suspicious emails in order to steal financial information from innocent victims.
The phone calls are not the only scam being perpetrated by these thieves. They are also sending out emails claiming to be from the IRS. Similar to the phone call scams, the email asks the victim to provide them with their personal information on a form where they can submit their information to get their stimulus payment refund.
In yet another form of scam via email, the victim is is told that his or her tax return is being audited and is asked to click on links within the email in order to provide personal information. Even tax professionals and accountants are getting emails from these scam artists. This form of the scam asks the victims to follow certain instructions so they can download information regarding new changes to existing tax laws. Once the recipient clicks on the provided links, malware is downloaded onto the victim’s computer, providing remote access to the hard drive of their computer.
To be clear, the IRS will not be calling taxpayers for anything regarding their stimulus rebate checks. They would never ask for this type of information over the phone anyway.
If you do get one of these phishing emails, you should report it immediately. If you get one related to taxes, send an email to phishing@irs.gov to confirm the legitimacy of the email. They will ask you to send them the email or the correspondence so they can start their own investigation.
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