Last month, a client forwarded my office an obviously fraudulent e-mail he received from someone posing as a representative of the Internal Revenue Service. The e-mail asked this client to complete a form including social security numbers and banking information, and then fax the completed form to a number listed on the e-mail. Luckily, the fax number was out of service, and this client was not able to forward the completed form to this person, even though he tried to do so more than once.
It’s important to remember that the IRS does not correspond with taxpayers electronically. If you receive an e-mail from the Internal Revenue Service asking you to provide information, that e-mail is most likely fraudulent. Here is what the IRS has posted about scams like this:
The Internal Revenue Service has issued several recent consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by scamsters trying to gain access to consumers? financial information in order to steal their identity and assets. When identity theft takes place over the Internet, it is called phishing.
Suspicious e-Mail/Phishing
Phishing (as in ?fishing for information? and ?hooking? victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information that can be used to steal the victims? identity. Current scams include phony e-mails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure the victims into the scam by telling them that they are due a tax refund.
Form W-8BEN
[This is the scam e-mail that my client received.] In this scam, fraudsters modify a genuine IRS form, the W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding, to request detailed personal and financial information. This could include nationality, passport number, bank account and PIN numbers, spouse?s name and mother?s maiden name, or other personal or financial information or security measures for financial accounts. The scammers may use the genuine form number and name or may make up a new form number, such as W-4100B2.
They either e-mail or fax the form or letter. If only a letter, the letter itself contains the request for the personal and financial information. The letter, which claims to come from the IRS, states that the recipient will face additional taxes unless he or she quickly faxes the required information to the number provided by the scammer.
In reality, taxpayers file the genuine Form W-8BEN with their financial institutions, not with the IRS. Additionally, the genuine W-8BEN does not request the taxpayer?s passport number, bank account number, security or similar information.
You Can Help Shut Down Phishing Schemes
The good news is that you can help shut down these schemes and prevent others from being victimized. If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, you can relay that e-mail to a new IRS mailbox,phishing@irs.gov. Follow instructions in the link below for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure that it retains critical elements found in the original e-mail. The IRS can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you send to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites. Unfortunately, due to the expected volume, the IRS will not be able to acknowledge receipt or respond to you.
You can read about additional scams discovered by the IRS at:http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=211669,00.html