There’s an email purporting to be from the U.S Government Tax services stating that your refund is ready to be deposited in your bank account. In order to ensure proper delivery and deposit, the email states that you must confirm your personal identifiable information. This is a phishing scam out to steal banking information and your identity. If you receive such an email, mark it as spam and delete it immediately.
This is money making scam and it seems to circulate right before the tax deadline. It is important that you never provide any information requested by email nor should you ever provide personal information by way of an online line form.
The IRS will never use this tactic or will your tax preparation company. All transactions are done at the time you complete your tax filing.
The refund scam email looks legitimate because cyber crooks use and re-purpose IRS content and images to fool users into thinking the web site is real. Be smart this tax season and don’t be a victim of this ongoing tax refund scam.
More and more people are being scammed because they are unaware of these online scams. Cyber crooks have become more technically sophisticated which has led to an increase in phishing attacks in recent years.
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 or collect personal information.
- 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.
- 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, and then delete the e-mail from your inbox.
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Cyber-technology can be something helpful yet can also be something risky and dangerous. I also heard of scam that preys on the elderly using a ploy for Medicare Renewal modus operandi where scammers targets the elderly by collecting critical information to loot unsuspecting seniors.