IRS Warns of Phony Tax
Refund e-Mails
The U.S. Internal
Revenue Service (IRS)is
warning U.S. taxpayers
in Costa Rica to wary of
emails.
The emails, pretending
to be legitimate from
the IRA, are "phishing"
for personal
information, notifies
the tax payers of a
refund and asked to
submit a tax refund
request.
The scam is to obtain
Social Security Number
and credit card
information and possibly
infect the user's
computer with a virus.
The IRS warns on its
webpage that taxpayers
receive a page of, or
are sent to, a Web site
(titled "Get Your Tax
Refund!") that copies
the appearance of the
genuine "Where's My
Refund?" interactive
page on the genuine IRS
Web site. Like the real
"Where's My Refund?"
page, taxpayers are
asked to enter their
SSNs and filing status.
However, the phony Web
page asks taxpayers to
enter their credit card
account numbers instead
of the exact amount of
refund as shown on their
tax return, as the real
"Where's My Refund?"
page does. Moreover, the
IRS does not send
e-mails to taxpayers to
advise them of refunds
or to request financial
information.
The IRS has been
successful in uncovering
a number of such schemes
over the last several
years.
U.S. taxpayers who have
doubt on the
authenticity of the
email can go to the IRS
website page on "suspicious
e-mails and identity
theft" or the
numbers listed on their
telephone assistance
page. |
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