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IRS Warning Filers of Identity Theft Scams

With more consumers choosing to file their taxes online, the Internal Revenue Service is warning them about masked e-mails aimed at revealing their financial information.

These scams use the IRS name and branding in unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information. The IRS says they do not ask people for PIN numbers, passwords or similar personal access information about credit cards, bank or other financial accounts.

Duping consumers into revealing their financial data to gain access to personal accounts though e-mails is referred to as “phishing.”

“There does seem to be a proliferation of them this filling season,” Richard Morgante, commissioner of the IRS wage and investment division told The Associated Press. “We have more thieves trying to take advantage of the filing season then we’ve seen in the past.”

In an effort to educate the public, the IRS says it tries to alert consumers and authorities to shut down these schemes. Some of the recent scams the IRS says are e-mails that come from "tax-refund@irs.gov," "admin@irs.gov" or other similar looking addresses. The consistent theme in the e-mails is to refer recipients to claim their refund by clicking a link to a Web site.

The IRS says these sites are clones of the IRS Web site. If you happen to get one of these unsolicited e-mails or phone calls, the IRS wants consumers to be skeptical. They say you should verify the authenticity of phone calls, standard mail, faxes or e-mails of questionable origin.

Consumers who receive these fake IRS e-mails are encouraged to call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.