Scam Alert & Mini-Rant

[Lund Explorer]

This one is something new I haven't seen until just lately when several of my business clients got these scam emails.  In the hopes that nobody here ends up getting burned, I thought it would be a good idea to pass this information along.

So far, this scam has been sent to email addresses that are shown on client's websites. 

The sender says that they are the Internal Revenue Service, and that a recent tax payment made through the EFTPS system has either been lost or was incomplete.  The email provides a link (go figure) to a site where you can re-enter the data so the payment can be processed correctly.

Short of wondering why anyone trusts any emails these days, some people could think that the IRS wouldn't be a part of this.  They're right. 

The IRS will never email you about anything! 

All first contacts with taxpayers are still made through regular mail.  Even taxpayers with back tax issues can't use emails for IRS communications.  If you do get ones of these emails, and want to confirm that your tax payment has been made and credited correctly, please call them.  You should only need to provide the confirmation number that you received when you made the payment.

With a shift towards almost all taxes and payments being made electronically, I can see more scams of this nature coming up in the future.  My best advice is to never trust anything from the government until you have made contact with them at a published phone number or physical address.

Mini-Rant:

Thanks IRS, your continuous efforts to treat honest taxpayers in a hard-nose manner which you have even bragged about, has trained people to fear your office.  This in turn simply makes these scammers jobs easier.

[Fishing Rhino]

I agree with your mini-rant.  One would think that with all the tools at their disposal, it would be a simple matter for the government to track down the sources of these spurious e mails.

I do believe the feds have given themselves practically unlimited authority to track just about any kind of internet activity.

As an aside, if you get anything in the U.S. mail that is a scam, the best thing to do is to bring it to your post office, not the local police.  They are better equipped and more likely to deal with mail fraud than local officials.

[Sam]

Lund is totally correct.

My wife just retired from the IRS (they are here to help you) and said the IRS nevers uses email.

Please forward all emails to the IRS, which no longer wants to be called the IRS but Department of the Treasury. 

[BrianinMD]

The task of tracking down who sends these types of emails is a needle in a haystack at best. Scammers are not going to use their own systems, they compromise every day peoples computers who never suspect. Command and control system are all over the world which provide instructions to the drone's on what to send when. Tracing back the activity only gets you to infected systems not the culprits.

[Lund Explorer]

Lund is totally correct.

My wife just retired from the IRS (they are here to help you) and said the IRS nevers uses email.

Please forward all emails to the IRS, which no longer wants to be called the IRS but Department of the Treasury.

Don't take what I said the wrong way Sam, in 33 years I've met many great people that work for IRS that did everything they could to help taxpayers with their issues.

But several of their directors have made it a policy that instilling a certain amount of fear into the general public made them good taxpayers.  I can think of better ways to go about it, but what do I know.

[done]

Lund is totally correct.

My wife just retired from the IRS (they are here to help you) and said the IRS nevers uses email.

Please forward all emails to the IRS, which no longer wants to be called the IRS but Department of the Treasury.

Don't take what I said the wrong way Sam, in 33 years I've met many great people that work for IRS that did everything they could to help taxpayers with their issues.

But several of their directors have made it a policy that instilling a certain amount of fear into the general public made them good taxpayers. I can think of better ways to go about it, but what do I know.

Your wife needs to come to Charlotte then, PLEASE. Last time I went into that office after the IRS wrongfully demanded I owed them a couple grand, the lady at the counter told me she did not know why their system told me I owed them money and that she could not contact anyone, or get me any answers, and even though it looked incorrect I should pay it anyway.

I had to through my senator and an attorney. As far as I am concerned I would like to see the entire agency go under and every single employee run through an experience like that before being sent to their unemployment line. I would LOVE to see someone from that agency who acts like a human being.

As far as the scam, yeah there are a TON of those. I get about 15 notices from banks that my account is going to be confiscated if I do not respond to their email, IRS emails, FBI emails, and of course the famous, I am a poor trapped honest soul looking to commit major fraud with a complete stranger emails.