I received an email today, seemingly from the IRS regarding a refund I was due.
Let me show you:
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
United States Department of the TreasuryDear Taxpayer,
Continues after Advertisement
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal
activity we have determined that you are eligible
to receive a tax refund of $184.80.Please submit the tax refund request and allow us
6-9 days in order to process it.A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying
after the deadline.To access the form for your tax refund, use the following personalized link:
http://0x7C.0×3.0x3A.0×85/www.irs.gov/taxrefund.php
Regards,
Internal Revenue Service
What’s scary is if you click on the link it brings you to a page that looks like an official page asking you to enter your social security number, credit card information, and personal information. At the bottom it shows you have much you are due with a submit button.
There’s no way this is real!
First – Where did they get my Free From Broke email address? I don’t file taxes under the site’s name!
Second – I would expect if the IRS were contacting me they would use my name in the greeting rather than Dear Taxpayer.
Third – Why would I need to enter my credit card information to receive a refund? And why would they need my SSN if they already know who I am?
I see lots of SPAM and and Phishing email but this one looks a little better than most. This is very similar to the PayPal scam emails that were going around a little while back.
I hope people aren’t giving away their information to these crooks!
Remember, a reputable company will not ask for your SSN or credit card number.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s also worth noting that the “main” address of a webpage (in this case, the “irs.gov”) should always be in the FIRST set of slashes, after the http://.
That is, in a real email, you should expect http://www.irs.gov/taxrefund/0×7C.0×3.0×3A.0×85 or http://0×7C.0×3.0×3A.0×85.irs.gov/taxrefund.
The fact that the irs.gov is moved AFTER the first slash is a dead giveaway: you are NOT going to the official irs.gov page, and somebody wants you to think you are!
You are absolutely right! Thanks for pointing that out. Unfortunately I don’t think everyone is as savvy as you and a lot of people would probably see the address as real.
Thanks for posting this word about the IRS scam. I knew I didn’t have a refund coming, so I was suspicious. Glad to read about the scam.
@ Frances – You’re very welcome. I’m glad I could help!