Beware of Suspicious E-Mails

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Be aware of e-mail that fraudulently use the IRS name or logo as a lure. The aim of the scam is to trick people into revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, which the scammers can use to commit identity theft and steal your money. If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site remember the following:

• The IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails about a person’s tax account or ask for detailed financial information.
• Do not reply.
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Do not click on any links. If you click on any links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing Web site and entered confidential information, visit the Identity Theft page of on http://www.irs.gov.
• Remember that all the web page addresses for the official IRS website, IRS.gov, begin http://www.irs.gov.
• If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, forward it to a special IRS mailbox at phishing@irs.gov.