Please Alert Your Clients to This Email/Phone Scam
Last night I posted a version of this to get the word out fast but there were very few AR'ers online. I received the email below yesterday purporting to be from the IRS regarding how to collectmy 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.
I'm not re-posting this for the points but simply to get the information out to as many people as possible. It poses a real danger to vulnerable members of our communities.
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: While I was cleaning out my junk mail, I found two other variations of this email. The scammers are out in force. Ironically, they both claimed that I was owed a measly $109.30.
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Lisa, thanks. this is good for everyone to see, even if we may have recognized it. By knowing that these scams exist, we can warn others who might not otherwise know.