IRS (Internal Revenue Service) Phishing Scams

The United States Department of the Treasury has been tracking IRS phishing scams since 2005, according to an article by Jason Dick entitled Phishing Email Scams Increasingly Target the IRS. These phishing scams often entice the user to visit the phishing site by using an irresistible tax refund as the bait. The phishing site normally collects personal information of the victim that may be used by the scammer to commit identity theft. For more specific information and up to date news about IRS scams visit the Phishing and ID Theft page of the IRS website

Below are links to copies of typical IRS phishing scam e-mails. Note that the original formatting of the e-mails was preserved and this is more or less how they look when you open them. We have disabled the links in the e-mails because they point to dangerous locations that may result in identity theft or infect your computer with viruses or spyware.

• IRS Tax Refund Scams