LAKE COUNTY- A suspicious e-mail was recently received by a member of the Record-Bee staff claiming that the individual was eligible to receive a tax refund. Upon investigation, it was determined that the e-mail is bogus and a part of an ongoing problem related to cyber scams.
“This is a huge problem and it”s been a huge problem for years. Number one, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails about personal tax accounts. The other problem is these are actually cyber scams or cyber scammers,” Jesse Weller, IRS spokesman for Northern California said. “The e-mails look real because they have graphics that identify them as the IRS. If you click on the link it takes you to a Web site that looks like the IRS, but these Web sites are bogus.”
Weller continued, “The intention of for these scammers is to pose as the IRS and what they are trying to do is get you to divulge personal and financial information such as Social Security number, bank account number, credit card numbers, pin numbers and ultimately steal your money or steal your identity.”
According to Weller, because the IRS absolutely does not send e-mails regarding personal tax accounts, the public should consider every such e-mail as a fraud. “If you get an e-mail that says it comes from the IRS promising a refund, threatening an audit or any other tax-account related matter, be on alert and don”t click on any links in the e-mail or open any attachments,” Weller said. “Instead, forward the e-mail to the IRS at a special e-mail address that has been set up to shut down these scammers.”
Suspicious e-mails should be forwarded to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. According to Weller, the IRS has received nearly 33,000 forwarded scam e-mails reflecting more than a 1000 different incidents.
Weller further warned that some of these e-mails provide links to Web sites that can launch viruses into your computer. He said if you do open a link you should run a virus scan on your computer immediately. “Do not open any attachments or click on links in the message. Doing so may download a Trojan Horse that can damage your computer or allow remote access to your hard drive,” Weller said. “If you click on a link or open an attachment, make sure your virus protection is up-to-date and run a scan immediately. If your have spyware protection, run a scan for that, too.”
According to Weller, many of these cyber scams originate in foreign countries making it difficult for the government to shut them down. “The IRS and Treasury Department have identified cyber scams from at least 55 different countries,” Weller said. “Because these sites originate, in many cases, in foreign countries, it is hard to shut them down because the US doesn”t have enforcement rights in foreign countries.”
The IRS does, however, work with international computer security agencies to shut down the scam operations, Weller said. The IRS and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) work with the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and various internet service providers and international CERT teams to have the “phishing” sites taken offline as soon as they are reported. TIGTA investigations have identified hosts sites where cyber scammers have gone “phishing” for US taxpayers from at least 55 different countries including Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, England, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Singapore and Slovakia, as well as the United States.
IRS would like to remind the public that there is only one official Web site for the agency, which is www.irs.gov. If you believe that you have been the victim of a tax scam, contact the US Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration toll-free at 1-800-366-4484.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com.
