News: Be on the Lookout for Electronic Tax Payment E-mail Scam

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Be on the Lookout for Electronic Tax Payment E-mail Scam

The Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers to be aware of a phishing e-mail scam that uses the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) as a way to lure individuals into disclosing their confidential information. The EFTPS system, currently used by more than 6 million taxpayers, allows businesses to pay all their federal taxes online or by phone.

Anyone who uses EFTPS to make their federal payments or QuickBooks Payroll subscribers who use QuickBooks 2007 e-pay capabilities should be on the lookout for this phishing and report any suspicious e-mails. Taxpayers may e-mail information about suspicious EFTPS messages to: phishing@irs.gov. (Please be aware that the phishing@irs.gov mailbox is only for suspicious e-mails and not for general taxpayer contact or inquiries.)

According to the IRS, the EFTPS e-mail scam looks like a page from IRS.gov and claims to be from the "IRS Antifraud Comission" (sic), a fictitious group, but it is fraught with grammatical errors and typos. The bogus e-mail claims someone has enrolled the taxpayer's credit card in EFTPS and has tried to pay taxes with it. The e-mail also says there have been fraud attempts involving the taxpayer's bank account. The e-mail claims money was lost and "remaining founds" (sic) are blocked. Recipients are asked to click on a link that will help them recover their funds, but the subsequent site asks for personal information that the thieves could use to steal the taxpayer's identity.

Be aware that the IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information, and the IRS will never ask taxpayers for PIN numbers or access information for their credit card, bank, or other financial account information.

Read more about this scam at the IRS Web site.
www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=160334,00.html

Recent Increases in Phishing Scams

In May 2006, the Anti-Phishing Working Group reported a 90 percent increase in new unique phishing sites since the second half of 2005.
The Anti-Phishing Working Group has received an all-time high of more than 17,000 phishing reports per month in 2006.
A Harvard study found that 90 percent of participants in its study did not identify well-constructed, real-world phishes. Nearly one-quarter of the participants ignored security indicators and more than half dismissed pop-up warnings about fraudulent security certificates.

The information contained in the QuickBooks Payroll Bulletin is meant to provide general information about the payroll process and is not intended to provide tax or legal advice. Always consult your tax professional when preparing tax documents.

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