WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today warned of an ongoing IRS-impersonation scam that appears to primarily target educational institutions, including students and staff who have “.edu” email addresses.
The IRS’ phishing@irs.gov has
received complaints about the impersonation scam in recent weeks from people
with email addresses ending in “.edu.” The phishing emails appear to target
university and college students from both public and private, profit and
non-profit institutions.
Taxpayers who believe they have
a pending refund can easily check on its status at “Where’s My Refund?” on
IRS.gov.
The suspect emails display the
IRS logo and use various subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or
“Recalculation of your tax refund payment.” It asks people to click a link and
submit a form to claim their refund.
The phishing website requests
taxpayers provide their:
- Social
Security Number
- First
Name
- Last
Name
- Date
of Birth
- Prior
Year Annual Gross Income (AGI)
- Driver's
License Number
- Current
Address
- City
- State/U.S.
Territory
- ZIP
Code/Postal Code
- Electronic
Filing PIN
People who receive this scam
email should not click on the link in the email, but they can report it to the
IRS. For security reasons, save the email using “save as” and then send that
attachment to phishing@irs.gov
or forward the email as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA) and IRS Criminal Investigation have been notified.
Taxpayers who believe they may
have provided identity thieves with this information should consider
immediately obtaining an Identity Protection PIN. This is a voluntary opt-in
program. An IP PIN is a six-digit number that helps prevent identity thieves
from filing fraudulent tax returns in the victim’s name.
Taxpayers who attempt to e-file
their tax return and find it rejected because a return with their SSN already
has been filed should file a Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, to report themselves
as a possible identity theft victim. See Identity Theft Central to learn about the signs of identity
theft and actions to take.
