Phishing Scam: Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Refund Notification via Emails

Beware! Its a Cyber World -- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Refund Notification: Summary

A mail is circulating purportedly from Internal Revenue Service (IRS) United States Department of the Treasury enticing the recipients to use the attachment for applying to apply for tax refunds, calculated recently by the Department. 

The mail is a scam and has no grounds as identity theft tops the IRS's list of common scams that taxpayers can encounter at any point during the year.

See the contents of the mail below before heading towards further explanation:

=====================================================
From: Internal Revenue Service (message07621@34234.irs.gov)
To: (Omitted by Author of this article)
Sent: Wednesday, 29 February 2012 8:39 AM
Subject: Tax notification for (Omitted by Author of this article)

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
United States Department of the Treasury

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have
determined that you are eligible to receive your tax return.

Due to invalid account records we were unable to credit your account.
Please submit a verified tax return request as soon as possible.

Your tax return request form is attached to this email.

After you  submit the tax return request, please allow us
4 to 12 working days in order to process it.


Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

February 28th, 2012 (10:39:11 p.m.)
Document Reference: (1442361382).
====================================================

Beware! Its a Cyber World -- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Refund Notification: Explanation

The mail message asking recipients to use the attached form for submitting tax refund request actually leads to a look-alike IRS website showing the form to be filled up by the recipient to submit tax return. The form on the fake IRS website is shown below:

SCAM: Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Refund Notification

 

If you're still waiting to file for your tax refund, you better act quick- or someone else could get it instead.

The IRS is dealing with a surge of reports in identity tax fraud, and web based convenience isn't helping.

"Anytime something's very easy for you to do it's also easy for someone else to exploit," says David Powell of Teklinks.

He warns it's not hard for these web thieves to exploit their victims.

IRS's own website mentions it as:

Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft

The Internal Revenue Service has issued several recent consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by scamsters trying to gain access to consumers’ financial information in order to steal their identity and assets. When identity theft takes place over the Internet, it is called phishing. Suspicious e-Mail/Phishing Phishing (as in “fishing for information” and “hooking” victims) is a scam where Internet fraudsters send e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information that can be used to steal the victims’ identity. Current scams include phony e-mails which claim to come from the IRS and which lure the victims into the scam by telling them that they are due a tax refund. Phishing and Other Schemes Using the IRS Name The IRS periodically alerts taxpayers to, and maintains a list of, phishing schemes using the IRS name, logo or Web site clone. If you've received an e-mail, phone call or fax claiming to come from the IRS that seemed a little suspicious, you just may find it on this list.