IRS dirty dozen tax scams for 2013

     In my last blog I covered a press release the IRS had put out at the end of last week, dealing with what they called the largest scam of this kind. It informed us they had received over 20,000 calls from people complaining they were receiving calls from individuals claiming to be  with the IRS and they owed back taxes that  needed to be payed immediately to the IRS via prepaid debit cards or money order or face substantial punishment. This blog will deal with a couple of the dirty dozen scams for 2013 that I have not talked about before.

                             Phishing

     A phishing scam usually contacts you via an unsolicited email or a fake website that poses as a legitimate site.  It will try to entice you to provide valuable personal and financial information. If you provide them  this  information you will be

opening the door to identity theft and financial fraud. Keep in mind the IRS  does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes text messages and social media.


     If you receive an unsolicited email that appears to be from the IRS or an agency closely linked to the IRS such as the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System( EFTPS) you can report it by sending it to
                   phishing@IRS.gov. 

                  Return  Preparer fraud 

     When hiring an individual or firm to prepare your return you should choose carefully. The IRS wants to remind all taxpayers that they should use only preparers who sign the return they prepare and enter their IRS tax identification number. Most 

return preparers provide honest service to the clients but there are some unscrupulous preparers who prey on unsuspecting taxpayers and results can be refund fraud or identity theft.

       Remember taxpayers are legally responsible for what's on their tax return even when prepared by someone else.Therefore make sure that the preparer you hire is up to the task.

     The IRS has created a new webpage to assist taxpayers  in choosing a preparer, red flags to look out for and details on preparers qualifications and information on how to file a complaint by  visiting the website below.
                  http://www.irs.gov/


                                              New Scam update


     I want to share with you a couple of new scams that I received this week via  email.

The first one is from the Powerball Lottery Board

            Subject line says " winners list"  

     The email or website  says  please check the attached file for details. It doesn't have my name on it as the recipient, that is a red flag to proceed with caution.If I were to open up the attachment I will have compromised my personal information.

   The second one is addressed to dear account user

 we noticed your email account has been opened in one other location with the network IP address  of 93.210.13.68 with instructions to click here

     The next sentence  says please log out your email account within the next 24 hours or your account will be locked by our webmail administrator which you will not be able to send or receive emails.
Finally my failure to carry out the above as soon as possible could result in new incoming emails being blocked
Signed regards

webmail support
Then it leaves this do not reply message

*Please do not reply to this message. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.

     As you can see there are errors in grammar which is a big clue that this is a bogus email. Even without the grammatical errors common sense would dictate that you would want to delete this email and not respond or open it and put your personal information in jeopardy.

     If anyone has been a victim of identity theft and would like to discuss it or would like to talk about a scam that I have not discussed please send me the information at  rbentleygiant@gmail.com. Also any comments you may have, good or bad I welcome. 

                  Richard Bentley
                 richardbentley.us
                                    http://seniorscamspodcast.com/