IRS warns about new email scam

The Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers about a new phishing scam. Phishing, a word play on “fishing” for information, is a scam in which internet fraudsters send seemingly legitimate email messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information.

Alternately, the purpose of an email scam may be to download malware, or malicious code, onto the recipient’s computer when the recipient opens an attachment to the email or clicks on a link within the email. The malware could take over the victim’s computer hard drive, giving someone remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scamster.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants Delawareans to be aware of a recent scam in which recipients receive an email that claims to come from the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). EFTPS is a tax payment system that allows individuals and businesses to pay federal taxes electronically via the internet or phone.

“The email states that tax payments made by the email recipient through EFTPS have been rejected,” said Gregg Semanick, IRS Delaware spokesman. “The email then directs recipients to a bogus website containing malicious software that infects the intended victim’s computer. To avoid the bogus website and malware, do not click on any links, open any attachments or reply to the sender for any email you may receive that claims to come from EFTPS. The IRS and the Financial Management Service, the treasury bureau that owns EFTPS, never communicates payment information through email.”

Learn more at http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html.