New strands of fraudulent and potentially dangerous e-mail scams concerning the Internal Revenue Service have hit Alabama Internet users.
The e-mails, which inform the recipient of an alleged tax refund from the IRS, appear legitimate, according to Dan Boone, a media relations representative for the IRS.
“Generally, the e-mails utilize the IRS official logo, which most likely was copied from the Web site, and explain that based upon fiscal activity examinations, the user has qualified for a refund,” Boone said. “Some (of the e-mails) have been slightly different saying that new tax laws are in effect or warns the user that they might be audited.”
An alert issued by the IRS in January warned users of the problematic nature of the scam e-mails.
“These e-mails contain a link, which if clicked on, could download malicious software,” Boone said. “After a user clicks on the link, it takes you to a Web site that looks like the IRS’ and then asks for bank account numbers, personal identification numbers and essentially steals peoples identities.”
Other harmful e-mail scams have surfaced in recent months citing affiliations with different banks and offering similar financial incentives.
Auburn University Federal Credit Union is aware of the fraudulent e-mails and according to its Web site, urges people “not to reply to this e-mail.”
Like the IRS, they will never ask for personal information over the Internet.
While an exact number of victims of the scam are unknown, according to the IRS, many people have been affected, and they continue to field dozens of calls each day pertaining to the issue.
Based upon the information the IRS has been able to obtain about the e-mails, they seem to be coming from all over the globe. Evidence has pointed toward 58 different overseas countries as being connected with the scam.
If users know what to look for, the marring consequences of the e-mails can be avoided.
“The key message we want people to know is that the IRS never, under any circumstance sends personal financial information over the Internet,” Boone said. “If you receive an e-mail, be aware that it’s not from us.”
Cameron Pirouz, a senior in business marketing, recalls similar e-mails being sent to his TigerMail account.
“I definitely got a few like that, but I usually get lots of junk e-mail anyway, so I definitely didn’t click on the links,” Pirouz said.
If a suspicious e-mail is detected, Boone said the recipients can help the IRS in its effort to track the hackers by sending the e-mail to the organization.
Boone said this has to be done in a specific way in order to ensure the same encoding present on the original message is transferred to the IRS.
“You can’t just open the e-mail and forward it to the IRS,” Boone said. “But in order to properly send the same message, you have to copy the e-mail as an attachment ,then send it to phishing@irs.gov.”
Seth Humphrey, with the Auburn office of information technology, said if a scam e-mail is received, don’t click on the links.
“Go to the source, the bank or institution it’s claiming to be from, and ask if the e-mail is authentic,” Humphrey said.
For more information about the scams, visit www.irs.gov.
