Please Alert Your Clients to This Scam
I received this email today purporting to be from the IRS regarding collecting my IRS Economic Stimulus Rebate. It is a scam. Note that the link listed does not even include www.irs.gov. I apologize for the poor resolution of the screen shot. (I'm still learning how to efficiently insert screen shots into my blog) Please feel free to leave me any tips.
Below is what the IRS has to say about this scam (I excerpted the relevant information from the IRS website but there were several variations on this scam that the IRS outlines on the website):
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"IRS Warns of New E-Mail and Telephone Scams Using the IRS Name; Advance Payment Scams Starting
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Updated April 21, 2008
- Some people have received phone calls about the economic stimulus payments, in which the caller impersonates an IRS employee. The caller asks the taxpayer for their Social Security and bank account numbers, claiming that the IRS needs the information to complete the processing of the taxayer's payment. In reality, the IRS uses the information contained on the taxpayer's tax return to process stimulus payments, rather than contacting taxpayers by phone or e-mail.
- An e-mail claiming to come from the IRS about the "2008 Economic Stimulus Refund" tells recipients to click on a link to fill out a form, apparently for direct deposit of the payment into their bank account. This appears to be an identity theft scheme to obtain recipients' personal and financial information so the scammers can clean out their victims' financial accounts. In reality, taxpayers do not have to fill out a separate form to get a stimulus payment or have it directly deposited; all they had to do was file a tax return and provide direct deposit information on the return."
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I excerpted the relevant information from the IRS website but there were several variations on this scam that the IRS outlines on the website.
Our elderly and less tech savvy clients are particularly susceptible to these types of scams. This is an attempt to PHISH for identity theft purposes. I am going to be forwarding this email to all of my CPA, financial advisor and real estate agents and clients and referral sources, so that they can alert their clients.
Please feel free to email me for a copy of the email if you would like to forward it as an educational resource to your contacts and clients.
UPDATE 5.15.08 Afternoon: Cleaning out my junk mail I found two other versions of this email. The scammers are out in force. Ironically, they were saying that I was owed a measly $109.30.
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Lisa: Thanks for the alert. I hope many consumers see this as well. My broker received something similar not long ago. You really have to be careful about internet mail.