"Dear Accountant Officer,
Hereby you are notified that your Tax Appeal id#9207837 has been REJECTED. If you consider that the IRS did not properly investigate your case due to a misunderstanding of the facts, be ready to clarify and support your position. You can download the rejection details and re-submit your appeal under the following link Online Tax Appeal.
Internal Revenue Service"
If you receive this email don't click on the link and by all means don't bother to respond. The IRS does not notify you if they've rejected your tax return via email. Also, they don't email several people at once the same message. The image above came from my spam folder it was sent to several people, I blocked out the list of emails for privacy reasons.
If you recently used an online tax program or tax software to efile your tax return and receive a message like use the contact information provided to you on the software box, cd or on the website you used to file. Normally, if you used an online tax program or software to efile they do send you a message to let you know if it's been received or rejected but that message will not come from the IRS it will come from the company whose product you used to efile.
Of course if you haven't filed yet and are receiving a message like this then you know it's a scam.
REASON WHY THIS EMAIL IS A SCAM:
THE IRS DOES NOT CONTACT YOU VIA EMAIL REGARDING TAX RETURN DISCREPANCIES. IF YOU USED A TAX SOFTWARE TO PREPARE AND FILE YOUR TAXES THEN THE CONFIRMATION WILL COME FROM THE COMPANY WHO ADMINISTERS THE TAX SOFTWARE. THIS WARNING IS PLACED HERE BECAUSE OF THE FAMILIARITY OF HOW THE ELECTRONIC FILING PROCESS WORKS. SINCE ELECTRONIC FILING IS A POPULAR FORM OF DOING TAXES, THE SCAM EMAIL IS DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE APART OF THAT PROCESS. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE USING THIS FORM OF TAX PREPARATION OF HOW THE PROCESS WORKS AND WHERE THEIR EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS WILL COME FROM.
The email targets people who have used tax software to submit their tax information. If you use a software program, such as one mentioned above; to electronically file your taxes then during the process you will be asked for an email address so THEY not the IRS can send you confirmation of your tax efile being accepted or rejected. This is important to remember especially if you are new to electronically filing your taxes by yourself.
The idea behind the scam it is the target sees the email and thinks it came from the IRS so they click on the link provided in the email. There are several ways this scam works, I will outline one example here.
The link in the email takes the target to the scammers website which is set up to look like an IRS website. The target is asked to provide proof of identity, so identifying questions like social security number, date of birth, name, address, etc. are asked. A number of people have their tax return directly deposited into their accounts, so it may ask for a routing number and bank account as well.
The target thinking it is the IRS asking for this information of course gives it thinking their tax return has been rejected so they need to correct what ever has been deemed incorrect and resubmit the information.
Now with the information provided by the target, the scammer has enough information to commit identity theft.
If you or someone you know has received an email like this be sure of the source. If it asked you to click on a link in the email DON'T, if the email appears to be legit the best thing to do is to go to the website of the software publisher, for example Tax Cut, Turbo Tax, H and R Block; are a few commonly known companies who use web based tax software. Normally, if you have used their software to submit your taxes you had to register a user name and password. Once at the originally there input your user name and password and there will be a progress report regarding the status of your electronic tax filing.
If you want to learn more about this type of scam and other Tax scams go to the IRS website or you can use this direct link http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=238262,00.html.
REASON WHY THIS EMAIL IS A SCAM:
THE IRS DOES NOT CONTACT YOU VIA EMAIL REGARDING TAX RETURN DISCREPANCIES. IF YOU USED A TAX SOFTWARE TO PREPARE AND FILE YOUR TAXES THEN THE CONFIRMATION WILL COME FROM THE COMPANY WHO ADMINISTERS THE TAX SOFTWARE. THIS WARNING IS PLACED HERE BECAUSE OF THE FAMILIARITY OF HOW THE ELECTRONIC FILING PROCESS WORKS. SINCE ELECTRONIC FILING IS A POPULAR FORM OF DOING TAXES, THE SCAM EMAIL IS DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE APART OF THAT PROCESS. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE USING THIS FORM OF TAX PREPARATION OF HOW THE PROCESS WORKS AND WHERE THEIR EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS WILL COME FROM.
The email targets people who have used tax software to submit their tax information. If you use a software program, such as one mentioned above; to electronically file your taxes then during the process you will be asked for an email address so THEY not the IRS can send you confirmation of your tax efile being accepted or rejected. This is important to remember especially if you are new to electronically filing your taxes by yourself.
The idea behind the scam it is the target sees the email and thinks it came from the IRS so they click on the link provided in the email. There are several ways this scam works, I will outline one example here.
The link in the email takes the target to the scammers website which is set up to look like an IRS website. The target is asked to provide proof of identity, so identifying questions like social security number, date of birth, name, address, etc. are asked. A number of people have their tax return directly deposited into their accounts, so it may ask for a routing number and bank account as well.
The target thinking it is the IRS asking for this information of course gives it thinking their tax return has been rejected so they need to correct what ever has been deemed incorrect and resubmit the information.
Now with the information provided by the target, the scammer has enough information to commit identity theft.
If you or someone you know has received an email like this be sure of the source. If it asked you to click on a link in the email DON'T, if the email appears to be legit the best thing to do is to go to the website of the software publisher, for example Tax Cut, Turbo Tax, H and R Block; are a few commonly known companies who use web based tax software. Normally, if you have used their software to submit your taxes you had to register a user name and password. Once at the originally there input your user name and password and there will be a progress report regarding the status of your electronic tax filing.
If you want to learn more about this type of scam and other Tax scams go to the IRS website or you can use this direct link http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=238262,00.html.
WHAT benefit do the senders of these scam emails get?
ReplyDeleteCopied and pasted from the article above just for you. If you have any other questions please read the article first, thanks
ReplyDeleteNow with the information provided by the target, the scammer has enough information to commit identity theft.