Ignore IRS emails, it’s a scam

During the past few months, community members have reported receiving emails claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to Leffel, Otis & Warwick, P.S. Jim Leffel encourages any individual who receives an email pretending to be from the IRS not respond or open any attachments in the email, as it is a scam.

Reports of the emails have been received at the accounting firm around the fifteenth day of each month, shortly after quarterly tax payments are due.

The subject line of the email may read “Your transfer has been declined” and the sender is said to be the IRS.

The IRS does not contact people through emails, and these emails that customers have been receiving are part of a phishing scam. Phishing is an Internet scam where fraudulent individuals try to trick the email recipient into divulging personal or financial information that could lead to identity theft.

In a sample email provided to the The Journal by the staff at Leffel, Otis & Warwick, P.S., the text of the email informs the recipient of the email that an income tax payment “recently ordered for processing from your bank account was canceled by the Internal Revenue Service payment processing unit.”

The remainder of the email includes a tax transaction identification number and a reason for rejection in a Word document. The document is said to be a state tax transaction report, which should be an immediate warning sign, as Washington residents do not pay state tax.

The recipient in any circumstances should not open the document as it could have a virus that could infect the computer. The original email should be forwarded to the IRS and then immediately deleted.

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System reminds individuals that customers are never connected via email. The EFTPS asks individuals receiving any suspicious emails claiming to be from the IRS to forward the emails to [email protected] or call the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484.