Don’t Open That E-mail From the IRS!

The e-mail arrives bearing both the logo of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and good news: “After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $63.50. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it. All you have to do is ‘click here.’ ”

Don’t do it! This is a trick. Don’t open any attachments, and whatever you do, don’t supply the thieves with the pay dirt they’re looking for—your bank account number, password or credit card information, all with the aim of making a lightning raid on your personal funds.

Impersonating the IRS is just one more version of the burgeoning Internet crime known as phishing. In the last two years, the IRS has collected more than 30,000 suspicious e-mails from people around the country, says agency spokesperson Michelle Lamishaw.

Perpetrators send out e-mails in huge volumes, betting that a few targets will be “distracted enough or tired enough to respond,” says Peter Cassidy, secretary-general of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an industry association.

Even investigating such an e-mail can get you into trouble. Links and attachments can send you to a convincing clone of the official IRS website that cons you into giving away personal information. Or they can infect your computer with “crimeware” that will attempt to intercept the information.

Some bogus IRS e-mails circulating recently have declared that the recipient’s tax account is being investigated by an IRS anti-fraud unit. Others have solicited money to aid victims of California wildfires or have offered recipients money if they take “an IRS survey.”

The fact is that any unsolicited e-mail that claims to come from the IRS is probably fake. The agency simply doesn’t do business that way, Lamishaw says. If you want to track a refund or get other tax information, go online to the IRS through your Web browser—don’t click on “IRS” in an e-mail. Or call the help number, 1-800-829-1040. Forward suspicious e-mails to phishing@irs.gov, following IRS instructions on how to protect yourself from e-mail phishing schemes.