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IRS Alerts Public to New Identity
Theft Scams
Video: Watch Out for Tax Scams: English
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WASHINGTON
— The Internal Revenue Service reminds consumers to avoid identity
theft scams that use the IRS name, logo or Web site in an attempt to convince
taxpayers that the scam is a genuine communication from the IRS. Scammers may
use other federal agency names, such as the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
In
an identity theft scam, a fraudster, often posing as a trusted government,
financial or business institution or official, tries to trick a victim into
revealing personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers and
passwords, bank account numbers and passwords, Social Security numbers and
more. Generally, identity thieves use someone’s personal data to steal
his or her financial accounts, run up charges on the victim’s existing
credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the
victim’s name and even file fraudulent tax returns.
The
scams may take place through e-mail, fax or phone. When they take place via
e-mail, they are called “phishing” scams.
The
IRS does not discuss tax account matters with taxpayers by e-mail.
The
IRS urges consumers to avoid falling for the following recent schemes:
Making Work Pay Refund
This
phishing e-mail, which claims to come from the IRS, references the president
and the Making
Work Pay provision of the 2009 economic
recovery law. It says that there is a refundable credit available to
workers, consumers and retirees that can be paid into the recipient’s
bank account if the recipient registers their account information with the
IRS. The e-mail contains links to register the account and to claim the tax
refund.
In
reality, most taxpayers receive their Making Work Pay tax credit, which was
designed for wage earners, in their paychecks as a result of decreased tax
withholding, not as a lump sum distribution from a federal fund.
Additionally, consumers and retirees who are not wage earners are not
eligible for this tax credit.
Inherited Funds / Lottery Winnings / Cash Consignment
In
this phishing scheme, recipients receive an e-mail claiming to come from the
U.S. Department of the Treasury notifying them that they will receive
millions of dollars in recovered funds or lottery winnings or cash
consignment if they provide certain personal information, including phone
numbers, via return e-mail. The e-mail may be just the first step in a
multi-step scheme, in which the victim is later contacted by telephone or
further e-mail and instructed to deposit taxes on the funds or winnings before
they can receive any of it. Alternatively, they may be sent a phony check of
the funds or winnings and told to deposit it but pay 10 percent in taxes or
fees. Thinking that the check must have cleared the bank and is genuine, some
people comply. However, the scammers, not the Treasury Department, will get
the taxes or fees.
Form W-8BEN
In
this scam, fraudsters modify a genuine IRS form, the W-8BEN, Certificate of
Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding, to
request detailed personal and financial information. This could include
nationality, passport number, bank account and PIN numbers, spouse’s
name and mother’s maiden name, or other personal or financial
information or security measures for financial accounts. The scammers may use
the genuine form number and name or may make up a new form number, such as
W-4100B2.
They
either e-mail or fax the form or letter. If only a letter, the letter itself
contains the request for the personal and financial information. The letter,
which claims to come from the IRS, states that the recipient will face
additional taxes unless he or she quickly faxes the required information to
the number provided by the scammer.
In
reality, taxpayers file the genuine Form W-8BEN with their financial
institutions, not with the IRS. Additionally, the genuine W-8BEN does not
request the taxpayer’s passport number, bank account number, security
or similar information.
Refund Scam
The
bogus e-mail, which claims to come from the IRS, tells the recipient that he
or she is eligible to receive a tax refund for a given amount. It instructs
the recipient to click on a link contained in the e-mail to access and
complete a form for the tax refund. The form requires the entry of personal
and financial information. The refund scam is the most common one seen by the
IRS. Several recent variations on this scam have claimed to come from the
Exempt Organizations area of the IRS. Some others have included the name and
purported signature of a genuine or a made-up IRS executive.
Taxpayers
do not have to complete a special form to obtain a refund. Taxpayer refunds
are based on the tax return they submit to the IRS.
How to Spot a Scam
Many
e-mail scams are fairly sophisticated and hard to detect. However, there are
signs to watch for, such as an e-mail that:
- Requests detailed or an
unusual amount of personal and/or financial information, such as name,
SSN, bank or credit card account numbers or security-related information,
such as mother’s maiden name, either in the e-mail itself or on
another site to which a link in the e-mail sends the recipient.
- Dangles bait to get the
recipient to respond to the e-mail, such as mentioning a tax refund or
offering to pay the recipient to participate in an IRS survey.
- Threatens a consequence for
not responding to the e-mail, such as additional taxes or blocking
access to the recipient’s funds.
- Gets the Internal Revenue
Service or other federal agency names wrong.
- Uses incorrect grammar or odd
phrasing (many of the e-mail scams originate overseas and are written by
non-native English speakers).
- Uses a really long address in
any link contained in the e-mail message or one that does not start with
the actual IRS Web site address (www.irs.gov).
To see the actual link address, or url, move the mouse over the link
included in the text of the e-mail.
What to Do
The
IRS does not initiate taxpayer contact via unsolicited e-mail or ask for
personal identifying or financial information via e-mail. If you receive a
suspicious e-mail claiming to come 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.
- Do not click on any links, for
the same reason. Also, be aware that the links often connect to a phony
IRS Web site that appears authentic and then prompts the victim for
personal identifiers, bank or credit card account numbers or PINs. The
phony Web sites appear legitimate because the appearance and much of the
content are directly copied from an actual page on the IRS Web site and
then modified by the scammers for their own purposes.
- Contact the IRS at
1-800-829-1040 to determine whether the IRS is trying to contact you.
- Forward the suspicious e-mail
or url address to the IRS mailbox phishing@irs.gov,
then delete the e-mail from your inbox.
Genuine IRS Web site
The
only genuine IRS Web site is IRS.gov. All IRS.gov Web page addresses begin
with http://www.irs.gov/. Anyone wishing to
access the IRS Web site should initiate contact by typing the IRS.gov address
into their Internet address window, rather than clicking on a link in an e-mail.
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