IRS Renews Alert Following New Email Scams

After increased complaints, the IRS reminds taxpayers to be on the lookout for bogus e-mails claiming to be from the tax agency.

These e-mails are designed to trick the recipients into disclosing personal and financial information that could be used to steal identities and financial assets. The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information.

Find out more about these e-mail scams and what to do if you receive one or if your identity is stolen by reading the whole story in News Release IR-2006-104.

“The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information,” said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. “Don’t be taken in by these criminals.”

The IRS has seen a recent increase in these scams. Since November, 99 different scams have been identified, with 20 of those coming in June – the most since 40 were identified in March during the height of the filing season.

The IRS has established an electronic mailbox for taxpayers to send information about suspicious e-mails they receive which claim to come from the IRS. Taxpayers should send the information to: phishing@irs.gov.

More than 7,000 bogus emails have been forwarded to the IRS, with nearly 1,300 forwarded in June alone.

Links for more information:

• Suspicious E-mails and Identity Theft
• Federal Trade Commission identity theft Web site
• OnGuardOnLine
• IR-2006-104, July 7, 2006