Phony IRS Email

Today one of my clients who has a tax debt found the following email in her inbox, which was obviously NOT from the IRS:

Good day,Here is a notice, that you need to pay a penalty because you did not file income tax return by the deadline that is January 31, 2012.

Please note, that IRS [Section 6038(b)(1)] determines a monetary penalty to the amount of $10,000 for each [Form 5471] that is sent after the due date of filing the income tax return, or does not include the exhaustive information determined in [Section 6038(a)].

You will be released from the penalty provided that the taxpayer shows that the failure to meet the deadline for filing was caused by substantial reasons.

Please enter our official site for more details.

Kind regards,
Internal Revenue Service United States
Department of the Treasury

As you can probably imagine, the link (“Please enter our official site”) does not take you to the IRS website.  Had she clicked on the link, she could have compromised her computer files or possibly subjected her computer to a virus.  It is important to keep in mind that the IRS does not send unsolicited emails.

Another Round of Fake IRS Emails

Don’t be fooled by scam emails purporting to be from the IRS. The IRS does not communicate with taxpayers by email, so you can be sure that anything appearing to be from the IRS is a scam. IRS scam emails often contain links which, if opened, can damage your computer or compromise your private information.

The latest scam email originated in Saudi Arabia, contains the subject line “Tax refund important information,” and the following content:

After the last annual calculations of your financial activity we have concluded that you are eligible to get a tax refund of $464.
You may submit the tax refund application and give us 3-9 days in order to process it.

A refund can be hindered for many different reasons.
E.g., submitting invalid records or not meeting a deadline.

To get information about your tax refund please open this link.

Sincerely,
Tax Refund Department
Internal Revenue Service

 Thanks to the Taxgirl, Kelly Philips Erb, for spreading the word about these nefarious emails.