The IRS is not alone in getting your money this time of year. Unfortunately, this is the season for tax fraud schemes, including the perennial favorite, email phishing. Email phishing, for the uninitiated, is a term referring to fraudulent emails that take the look and feel of a legitimate corporate e-mail, trying to trick you into clicking on a link and enter Your personal information. Sophisticated phishers may look exactly like legitimate e-mails if you do not know what to watch, and their links can lead you to the ages that look remarkably like the real thing.
phishing schemes have been around since the birth of the Internet; they are the latest technological spin on a very old phone scam in which the crooks called unsuspecting citizens apply for social security or credit card numbers. Like the telephone scam, the best way to respond to a phishing e-mail is hanging: delete the email, do not click on anything and spend the rest of your day. If you want to be a good citizen, you can forward the email to phishy phishing@irs.gov~~V.
How serious phishing email this time of year? The IRS puts at the top of their list "Dirty Dozen" tax scams. This means it is incredibly common. You could be the recipient of an adverse tax scam phishing email this year. If you do not receive one and want to know what they look like, Snopes.com, the site of the well-known rumor debunking, are examples of a variety of email phishing tax. (Warning: the site Snopes contextual ads)
How can you say that the email is phishing.? First, ignore any email that claims to be the government. The IRS will never contact you by email or any social media like Facebook or Twitter. This was a policy for many years and is unlikely to change. Therefore, if you receive a communication from the IRS in any other way outside the station, you can assume it's fake.
all tax phishing emails purport to be from the IRS, however. Popular tax preparer H & R Block and Intuit, the makers of the well-known TurboTax tax software, also report issued phony emails supposedly under their name. Click on the links to their safety tips to protect against phishing). In a slightly different twist, guests H & R Block in Tennessee have even been scammed by fake text messages. Just as in an email or a phone call, text claiming to be tax entities should be ignored and reported. Remember, no reputable company other than your mobile operator will contact you by text message. Intuit has an updated list of phishing scams current on their website, so if you use TurboTax and receive e-mails from them, consult this list before responding or clicking on attachments.
To be safe, never click on an attachment from someone you do not know and make sure that all e-mails, even friends, are really of them before clicking. Always, always, think before you click. To use an example from my own e-mail box, is it really likely that your old college friend is stuck in London without money and you chose to apply for a loan? If it looks suspicious, it probably is - and my friend was still in South Carolina
Here is a good rule of thumb :. If you receive an email from your bank, your tax preparer or an online merchant with an urgent request about your account, do not click the link in the email: instead, go directly to the site of the bank or merchant and sign in the way you normally would. If there is an urgent message, it will be listed under your account.
Do not get hooked by phishing tax time!
Do not get hooked by phishing tax time! -
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