Government warns public on fake e-mails

Government warns public on fake e-mails

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - The federal agency charged with protecting consumers from Internet scams now finds itself wrapped up in one.

Identity thieves have sent thousands of bogus e-mails purporting to be from the Federal Trade Commission — as well as the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department — in an attempt to trick consumers into divulging personal financial information.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Because of cases like in this article, I hope we never fully switch from regular mail to email for all our letters. With all the scams that are out there, I never respond to any email that asks me for personal information. Whoever is running this scam is going to get in some huge trouble if/when they get caught.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7/26/07 by AcesInTheHole]

don't people have common sense anymore?

they should know that the government deals in the regular good ol' United States Postal Service. I mean how hard is it to know that? Its not like this is the first ever email type scam, there have been lots(!) you think people would know by now.

All I know is that these are among the bravest and/or stupidest criminals ever...they are going to be put under the jail if they are caught.

I wouldn't be surprised if the IP originated from somewhere deep inside of Russia.

Originally posted by agent violet
they should know that the government deals in the regular good ol' United States Postal Service. I mean how hard is it to know that? Its not like this is the first ever email type scam, there have been lots(!) you think people would know by now.

Not always, you can do your taxes online Maybe it just shows how scared people are of their government, too scared to even ignore the email, or too ignorant to actually look up the FTC and IRS websites for a number to call and confirm things.

We got one of those emails (actually 2 back to back) to a business mail account along with the daily banks scams and Nigeria stuff. Here it is:

This is Francis V. from the Refund Operations Department at Internal Revenue Service (United States Department of the Treasury).

After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $103.82.

Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 2-4 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reason. For exemple (invalid records or applying after the deadline). The good news is that Internal Revenue Service will make this refund directly to your visa and/or mastercard linked to your checking/savings account instead a check or a direct deposit.

To access the form for your tax refund, please continue to our secure server
form at: https: //sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetrefund.jsp Important: Do not use credit and/or american express or discover cards. Only cards that are linked to your checking/savings account are accepted.

Regards,

Francis V.
Internal Revenue Service - Tax Refund Specialist

It's hard to believe that people respond to these emails.

PS. I think an IRS employee would enter their last name........

[edit on 7/27/2007 by roadgravel]

do any of the tax forms actually ask you for your email address? if i remember correctly, no.

Well, lately i have noticed my emails are inundated by what you just mentioned in this thread. I have also noticed a high level of scams lately and some of them look very real, such as I recieved an email which appeared to be from one of my banks and everything looked legitimate, then they asked me to go to another website, the URL made it seem like it was from my bank, but that was when my alarm bells started going off, when they ask for you to go to some website to give personal information is a big hint that it is probably a scam, then they asked for a lot of specific information and i realized what it was.

I called my bank and told them about it, giving them all the information including the email where this scam came from and the website they sent me to.

Anyways, i have also gotten a lot of emails from Britain from about starting a new business, and they ask specific information which noone should give, to claims that i won the lottery in Britain or some other place and that I should give them information, or even that someone with similar last name to me just died that the person was rich and i could get part of their fortune.......

I have even recieved some scams in which i was offered jobs in engineering, and i wonder exactly how they found out i got an engineering degree, but the alarm in my head always ring once they start asking way too many questions such as my mother maiden name and such...

Anyways, I would recommend everyone to stay vigilant about such emails. There are some which look legit but doing some research you can find they are not.

[edit on 29-7-2007 by Muaddib]

You've received those bogus engineering proposals too eh?

I used to work tech support back before college, and let me tell you, there were enough customers who would have opened an e-mail marked "Horrible virus, do not open, this sh** will f**k you up"...

People are stupid. And because of that, there will always be scams out there.