Have you ever received an email from a family member, friend, or a company asking for personal or financial information? You may have been targeted by a growing type of cyber-attack known as phishing. Phishing emails or websites disguise themselves as legitimate ones and try to steal a victim’s money or identity. Even the Internal Revenue Service is subject to impersonators in these kinds of scams.
The IRS is issuing a warning about a new tax scam that uses a website that mimics the IRS e-Services online registration page. The actual IRS e-Services page offers web-based products for tax preparers, not the general public. The phony web page looks almost identical to the real one.
The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov. Don’t be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org or other designations instead of .gov.
Be aware that the 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.
If you find a suspicious website that claims to be the IRS, send the site’s URL by email to phishing@irs.gov. Use the subject line, ‘Suspicious website’. If you get an unsolicited email that appears to be from the IRS, report it by sending it to phishing@irs.gov.
