As we get closer to the tax filing deadline, many of us have received or are anticipating a refund (at least we hope so). Spammers, looking to make a quick buck, sometimes hundreds of dollars, use this opportune time to send messages aimed at getting one’s personal information and thus access the one’s bank account. Some subject lines to look for are:
•Income Tax Refund CANCELED|TURNED DOWN|NOT APPROVED|RETURNED|REJECTED
•Final reminder: Tax Refund Notification
•Your IRS tax bank transfer is not approved.
•Report of tax transfer rejection
•Your 2013 – IRS Tax Refund Payment
•fine|forfeit|forfeiture|penalty|surcharge for delay of tax return filing
•Your federal tax transfer has been not approved
•Your tax bank transfer has been declined
•Report of tax transfer rejection
and my personal favorite:
•pecuniary penalty for delay of tax return filling
Our spam filter may block some of these emails, but that is no guarantee that some won’t get through.
This is what the IRS has to say in warning at http://www.irs.gov/uac/Dirty-Dozen-Tax-Scams :
“[T]he IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels.”
It is important to remember that the IRS will never initiate contact with you via email. However if you initiate contact them via email they may reply using email but the from address will be the sender’s real name not an address like info.noreply@irs.gov
If there is any doubt, you can always reach out to the IRS via telephone for verification.
If you suspect an email to be spam you can forward the email as an attachment to datasecurity@luc.edu and we would be happy to analyze it for you.
Jim Pardonek
Information Security Officer