Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Fake IRS Emails for Identity Theft

I heard a report this morning that it's the time of year again for IRS phishing schemes. Turns out thieves send email to people and make it look like it's from the IRS. They ask you fill out stuff and get your name, social security number and I guess a few other things. Then they fill out a tax return for you and keep the money.

For the start of the tax season the IRS posted this, IRS Combats Identity Theft and Refund Fraud on Many Fronts and this seems to be actually kinda useful, Tips for Taxpayers, Victims about Identity Theft and Tax Returns.

They also have a page that like so many of their other topics, lists many publications on the topic by number, the latest of which seems to be from 2012. But it's probably still useful, Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft.

The simple thing is this, the IRS will NOT contact you. Don't reply to email or phone calls claiming to be from the IRS and don't give out personal info unless you initiate the contact.

1 comment:

The Dad said...

I laugh when I hear about this kind of stuff. Who in their right mind would think the IRS would send emails to people?