It seems like every year there is another phishing scam using the name of the Internal Revenue Service. Well, this year is no exception. This version claims to be a refund notification and contains an attachment for the unwary to click on. Don’t do it! For one thing, you should be aware that the IRS never initiates contact with taxpayers by email, text messages or social media channels to request personal or financial information.
This scam and other, similar scams also are perpetrated by telephone. Callers may say you have a refund due and try and get you to disclose private information to them. They may also call, say you owe them money, and demand immediate payment; they may even threaten to send the police to your home! Don’t panic. The more serious and immediate their demands seem, the more likely they are to be fakes. It will never hurt you to take the time to call the IRS and see if the call, text or email you have received is legitimate. Also, if you do happen to lose money to one of these scams, you can file a complaint with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
The IRS website has resources in place to help taxpayers with this problem. This information is not particularly easy to find, but is accessible in a couple of areas of the website. If you click on the “News & Events” tab of the website there is a hyperlink to “Tax Scams”. This will get you started. You can also go to the “Help & Resources” tab. This area has links for reporting suspicious emails and scams, as well as a link to report tax fraud activity. For more information about past scams of this type, there is a page entitled “Phishing and Other Schemes Using the IRS Name.”
The important thing to take away from this is that Phishing and other types of social engineering techniques are becoming more prevalent every day, and are not about to go away. This is because as firewalls, SIEM solutions and other information security mechanism have become more effective, cyber criminals have had to find new ways to worm their way into your networks. So stay wary and avoid being credulous. Never open an attachment or click on a link anywhere without checking it out first. Also, never give unsolicited or suspicious callers any kind of private information. The old adage “Look Before You Leap” has never been more true and appropriate than it is right now!