Comments on: Scam Alert: Unreported/Underreported Income Email

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:50:19 +0000

Yep, I am getting three of these everyday. And somehow they manage to put my name in the subject line too. Very ingenious,eh! Yes I checked the domain, it is actually not the irs.gov domain but a subdomain that starts with http://www.irs.gov
Sam´s last blog ..Get back ex boyfriend with these simple tricks

By: MTeng

MTeng — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:35:02 +0000

We’ve been getting these emails for over a month where I work. We’ve had several people respond to them including our accounting department. One thing that seems to get missed by everyone that has responded to these is, how did the IRS know your work email address? The tax payer ID they show is also the first part of your email address. I thought it was your SSN. Anyway, these have been pretty easy to spot compared to some of the more polished banking ones we’ve seen that include official looking letter head and links to websites that look just like the official bank site.

By: Holly - The Work at Home Woman

Holly - The Work at Home Woman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:41:44 +0000

Thanks for the information! It’s a shame that there are so many people who are willing to take advantage of other people’s trust… The key is to thoroughly research the notice or work at home opportunity before taking any action. General rule of thumb is, banks, IRS and other reputable organizations will not use email as their primary means of correspondence, but they will send a letter via the US postal service or ring you via phone. Be very careful of any email warning or opportunity.
Holly – The Work at Home Woman´s last blog ..The Work at Home Woman is Looking for Guest Bloggers!

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:01:12 +0000

Phishing scams seems to be becoming more and more scam sophisticated. Thanks for pointing out about it.

By: Kaila Colbin

Kaila Colbin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:58:32 +0000

Thanks for this — I consider myself an advanced Internet user and I completely fell for this one!

All the best,
Kaila
Kaila Colbin´s last blog ..Thank you to a thoughtful mother

By: Oqab Mohamed

Oqab Mohamed — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:11:53 +0000

I received that too, in fact multiple times.
I am Canadian, i live and work in Canada…

becareful out there
cheers

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:08:28 +0000

So true! I definitely felt that chill when I received the first one. Of course I’ve received the same message about 50 times since then

Reminds me of when I was on the board of our local girls softball association. I received an official looking letter saying that we were going to our non-profit status if we didn’t file certain paperwork. It went on to say that we would need to have them fill out the forms and that there was a $180 fee. It looked like an official IRS form. It even had board member’s names and addresses on it (not the current ones, but old ones that had in fact been on the board). Luckily, I read all the way through and way at the bottom in teeny, tiny print was a line that said, “This notice was not sent by the U.S. Government and is in no way connected with the IRS”. I’ll bet a lot of people just paid the fee, not wanting to be responsible for losing non-profit status for their organization.

By: iWorldDirect

iWorldDirect — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:55:05 +0000

Many people would fall for this type of scam. Just the mention of the IRS sends chills down many people’s back. They may become nervous and just do whatever the email tells them. It’s a good thing people like you are getting the word out about scams like this.
iWorldDirect´s last blog ..Doing What you Love Part 2

By: Elisha

Elisha — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:55:04 +0000

As a fellow worker from home – gee, that sounded poorly said – it’s awesome to find your blog! I’ll be keeping an eye on this one. ^-^

As for phishing scams and the like, aren’t they creepy? It makes you feel really close to disaster, in a way. That’s how I feel, anyway. ^-^

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:12:54 +0000

I got an official looking notice the other day from Pay Pal claiming there was a possible fraud perpetrated against my account. I assumed it had something to do with the last transaction, and clicked on the link before it even occurred to me it might be a scam. Well, turned out the link went nowhere, and when I looked at the whole thing, I realized it was not Pay Pal’s link. Sure look convincing, though. I immediately signed into my Pay Pal account and checked all my transactions, and reported it (along with the link to the phony site) to their security department. They reviewed my transactions again with me, and told me nothing had happened, but to change my password and security question just to be on the safe side. And, of course, to be sure to check the sender’s info before opening any links. Per their instructions, I cut and pasted the link so they could investigate it further. Unbelievable to think I was tricked again. It’s happened before.

This, of course, is the scarier side of using the Internet, and one everyone has to take every precaution in dealing with. Thanks for sharing the information. We can never be too careful.