NEW YORK -- The IRS is warning New York taxpayers about a new phishing scam. Phishing, a word play on “fishing” for information, is a scam in which Internet fraudsters send seemingly legitimate e-mail messages to trick unsuspecting victims into revealing personal and financial information.
Alternately, the purpose of an e-mail scam may be to download malware, or malicious code, onto the recipient’s computer when the recipient opens an attachment to the e-mail or clicks on a link within the e-mail. 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 IRS wants New Yorkers to be aware of a recent scam in which recipients receive an e-mail that claims to come from the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. EFTPS is a tax payment system that allows individuals and businesses to pay federal taxes electronically via the Internet or phone. This scam directs recipients to a bogus website containing malicious software which can infect the intended victim’s computer
Dianne Besunder, IRS spokeswoman for New York, notes that this scam has begun to turn up in some New Yorkers e-mail inboxes. “We have received reports that local taxpayers have received an e-mail claiming to be from EFTPS stating that tax payments made by the recipient have been rejected. It is important that taxpayers do not fall for this scam. The IRS and the Financial Management Service, the Treasury bureau that owns EFTPS, never communicates payment information through e-mail,” Besunder said.
If you receive an IRS related e-mail that you suspect is a phishing attempt or directs you to an imitation IRS website, please forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. You can also visit IRS.gov and enter the keyword phishing for additional information.
Information provided by the Internal Revenue Service
