Here we are on January 15, 2016 (as I write this post) and already have received 2 new types of e-mail scams regarding your taxes. I tend to get a number of them every year with my business and after reporting them to the IRS (if you don’t know how, follow this link), I try to publish the info on my Facebook and Linked In pages as well as here to let everyone know. This post will be updated as we go through 2016 with any additional scams that I personally receive or I get copies of from friends or clients.

Back on January 10th, an email from “Turbotax(dot)services(at)myturbotax(dot)inuit(dot)com” that was sent to recipients, instead of my email and the header was “Your TurboTax Identity Verification”. Please note I don’t use Turbo Tax (copyright of the Intuit Corporation) so I wouldn’t be getting an email from them about my Turbo Tax Identity… Anyway, the email wanted me to ‘download the attached form and follow the instructions on your sreen’ (sic). Normally these downloads are infected with Malware and/or the ask you to fill out a form that contains all your personal info so it’s a treasure trove for identity theft…

The next e-mail arrived last evening (Jan 14 2016) from ‘epayment(dot)ealert(at)mail(dot)com with the subject of “YOUR TAX EXEMPTION NOTIFICATION” (their caps). The email showed on my email program as being from IRS Tax Revenue. The e-mail (copied below) read:

Our records indicate that your resident address has been compromised.

As a result you are exempted from United States of America Tax reporting and withholdings on interest paid to you on your account and other financial benefits.

To protect your exemption from tax on your account and other financial benefits, you need to recertify your exemption status and enable us confirm your records with us.

Therefore, you are to authenticate the following by completing the attachment IRS Tax Refund Form.

Please complete IRS Tax Refund Form (attached) and click the Submit Botton, to enable us confirm your records immediately.

If your records are not confirmed on time, you will lose your tax exempt benefits and your account or any other financial benefits will be subject to US tax reporting and back up withholding*

*If back up withholding applies, we are required to withhold 30% of the interest/benefits paid to you.

We appreciate your cooperation in helping us protect your exempt status and also confirm our records.

Sincerely,

Isabella Charlotte,

IRS Public Relations

How interesting a person from IRS Public Relations thinks I may be tax exempt because my resident address has been compromised?!! Plus she wants me to confirm it?

Obviously another scam… I certainly didn’t download the ‘2015 IRS Tax Refund form’ (another irony – I’ve not even filed my 2015 taxes yet!).

Be sure to read any emails carefully but don’t click on any links or attachments. You can forward emails to ‘phishing@irs.gov’ and include the whole email so they get to see the headers, date/time, etc.

Anyone receive different scams? Would love to hear from you – please fill out the contact form below.

Cheers!

Thomas C. Hodge, CPA

President

The Hodge Group

4118 N. Western Avenue

Chicago, IL 60618

773.237.6369

www.thehodgegroup.com

www.taxbillappeals.com – Property Tax Bill Appeals for Cook County IL

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