ST. LOUIS - The Internal Revenue Service is among a growing group of government agencies whose names, logos and Web sites are being copied by con artists.
So far this year, the IRS has identified nearly 1,400 unique phishing sites that use the IRS logo or otherwise purport to come from the IRS.
“We’ve had reports of people receiving official looking e-mail that claims to come from the IRS,” said IRS spokesman Michael Devine.
"The current scam e-mails say you have Unreported/Underreported income and asks you to download a file that has your most recent tax return. That attached file has a virus that will infect the computer,” he said.
Anyone receiving a scam IRS e-mail should forward it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.
“The bottom line is that the IRS will never send an e-mail about your taxes or ask for your personal information, such as social security, bank account, credit card, or pin numbers,” said Devine.
To confirm whether the IRS is really trying to contact you, he said you can call the IRS toll free at 1-800-829-1040.
