Senior Citizens Can Expect to be Targets of Tax
Rebate Scammers
Fake emails, phone calls supposedly from IRS will
want your personal financial info.
April
18, 2008 - The Internet thieves are having a field day with the economic
stimulus refunds that will soon be sent to taxpayers in an effort to
bolster the sagging economy. But, they have also started their usual
barrage of fake IRS refund emails, like the one pictured on this page.
Senior citizens, in particular, are targets of a number of scams using
the stimulus payments and IRS refunds as ways to steal personal
financial information. The email pictured on this page was recently
received be the editor of SeniorJournal.com.
The Internal Revenue Service has warned taxpayers
to beware of several current e-mail and telephone scams, like this one,
that use the IRS name as a lure.
Senior citizens have been inundated with
information about the stimulus rebate after Congress made it possible
for millions of the elderly to qualify by including their Social
Security payments to qualify. These seniors - many of whom had not been
filing a tax return due to their low-income level - were required to
file to get the rebate.
This may make seniors more susceptible to these
refund scams, since they have not been accustomed to filing IRS returns.
This scam, and those that use the proposed rebates
as bait, is a variation on the scam that is seen frequently after the
April 15 tax filing date, which falsely tells recipients they are due a
tax refund but they must fill out an application, which is a fake.
The goal of the scams is to trick people into
revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security,
bank account or credit card numbers, which the scammers can use to
commit identity theft.
Typically, identity thieves use a victim’s personal
and financial data to empty the victim’s financial accounts, run up
charges on the victim’s existing credit cards, apply for new loans,
credit cards, services or benefits in the victim’s name, file fraudulent
tax returns or even commit crimes. Most of these fraudulent activities
can be committed electronically from a remote location, including
overseas.
Committing these activities in cyberspace allows
scamsters to act quickly and cover their tracks before the victim
becomes aware of the theft.
People whose identities have been stolen can spend
months or years — and their hard-earned money — cleaning up the mess
thieves have made of their reputations and credit records. In the
meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, may be refused loans,
education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't
commit.
Below are some of the related scams most recently
brought to the attention of the IRS.
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A Recent IRS Alert |
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A scheme in which a tax refund form is e-mailed,
supposedly by the Taxpayer Advocate Service (a genuine
and independent organization within the IRS which
assists taxpayers with unresolved problems), is particularly
blatant in the amount and type of information it requests.
The top of the form tells the recipient that they
are eligible for a tax refund for a specified amount. The
form asks for name, address and phone number and a substantial
amount of financial information, such as bank account
number, credit card number and expiration date, ATM PIN number
and more.
It also asks for mother's maiden name (frequently
used by many people as an account security password). At the
bottom is a phony name and signature, claiming to be that of the
Taxpayer Advocate.
The implication is that the taxpayer must fill in
and submit the form to receive a tax refund. In reality,
taxpayers claim their tax refunds through the filing of an
annual tax return, not a separate application form. |
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Rebate Phone Call
At least one scheme using the word “rebate” as part
of the lure has been identified. In that scam, consumers receive a phone
call from someone identifying himself as an IRS employee. The caller
tells the targeted victim that he is eligible for a sizable rebate for
filing his taxes early. The caller then states that he needs the
target’s bank account information for the direct deposit of the rebate.
If the target refuses, he is told that he cannot receive the rebate.
This phone call is a scam. No legislation has yet
been enacted that would allow the IRS to provide advance payments to
taxpayers or that determines the details of those payments. Moreover,
the IRS does not force taxpayers to use direct deposit. Those who opt
for direct deposit do so by completing the appropriate section of their
tax return, with bank routing and account information, when they file;
the IRS does not gather the information by telephone.
Refund e-Mail
The IRS has seen several variations of a
refund-related bogus e-mail which falsely claims to come from the IRS,
tells the recipient that he or she is eligible for a tax refund for a
specific amount, and instructs the recipient to click on a link in the
e-mail to access a refund claim form. The form asks the recipient to
enter personal information that the scamsters can then use to access the
e-mail recipient’s bank or credit card account.
In a new wrinkle, the current version of the refund
scam includes two paragraphs that appear to be directed toward
tax-exempt organizations that distribute funds to other organizations or
individuals. The e-mail contains the name and supposed signature of the
Director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations business division.
This e-mail is a phony. The IRS does not send
unsolicited e-mail about tax account matters to individual, business,
tax-exempt or other taxpayers.
Filing a tax return is the only way to apply for a
tax refund; there is no separate application form. Taxpayers who wish to
find out if they are due a refund from their last annual tax return
filing may use the “Where’s
My Refund?” interactive application on this Web site, IRS.gov.
The only official IRS Web site is located here at
www.irs.gov.
Audit e-Mail
Another new scam brought to IRS attention contains
features not seen before by the IRS. Using a technique calculated to
get almost anyone’s attention, the e-mail notifies the recipient that
his or her tax return will be audited. This is the first scam of which
the IRS is aware that uses this to get the victim to respond.
Unusual for a scam e-mail, it may contain a
salutation in the body addressed to the specific recipient by name. Most
scam e-mails seen by the IRS are sent using the same technique used by
spammers, in which hundreds of thousands of messages are sent to
potential victims based on Internet address. Because of the volume, the
typical scam e-mail is not personalized.
This e-mail instructs the recipient to click on
links to complete forms with personal and account information, which the
scammers will use to commit identity theft.
This e-mail is a phony. The IRS does not send
unsolicited, tax-account related e-mails to taxpayers.
Changes to Tax Law e-Mail
This bogus e-mail is addressed to businesses,
accountants and “Treasury” managers. It instructs them to download
information on tax law changes by clicking on a series of links to
publications on businesses, estate taxes, excise taxes, exempt
organizations and IRAs and other retirement plans. The IRS believes that
clicking on a link downloads malware onto the recipient’s computer.
Malware is malicious code that can take over the victim’s computer hard
drive, giving someone remote access to the computer, or it could look
for passwords and other information and send them to the scamster. There
are other types of malware, as well.
The urls contained in the link are not legitimate
IRS Web addresses. All IRS.gov Web page addresses begin with
http://www.irs.gov/.
Paper Check Phone Call
In a current telephone scam, a caller claims to be
an IRS employee who is calling because the IRS sent a check to the
individual being called. The caller states that because the check has
not been cashed, the IRS wants to verify the individual’s bank account
number. The caller may have a foreign accent.
In reality, the IRS leaves it entirely up to the
individual to choose to cash or not cash a paper check. The IRS has no
business need to know, and does not ask for, bank account or similar
information, except when taxpayers indicate on their tax return that
they are opting for the direct electronic deposit of their refund. In
that case, however, it is the individual’s responsibility to provide the
IRS with the correct bank routing and account numbers on the tax return;
the IRS does not contact taxpayers to verify the information.
What to Do
Anyone
wishing to access the IRS Web site should initiate contact by typing the
IRS.gov address into their Internet address window, rather than clicking
on a link in an e-mail or opening an attachment.
Those
who have received a questionable e-mail claiming to come from the IRS
may forward it to a mailbox the IRS has established to receive such
e-mails,
phishing@irs.gov, using
instructions contained in an article titled “How
to Protect Yourself from Suspicious E-Mails or Phishing Schemes.”
Following the instructions will help the IRS track the suspicious e-mail
to its origins and shut down the scam. Find the article by visiting
IRS.gov and entering the words “suspicious e-mails” into the search box
in the upper right corner of the front page.
Those
who have received a questionable telephone call that claims to come from
the IRS may also use the
phishing@irs.gov mailbox to
notify the IRS of the scam.
The
IRS has issued previous warnings on scams that use the IRS to lure
victims into believing the scam is legitimate. More information on
identity theft, phishing and telephone scams using the IRS name, logo or
spoofed (copied) Web site is available on
this
Web site. Enter the terms “phishing,” “identity theft” or “e-mail
scams” into the search box in the upper right corner of the front page.
