This may be old news but I was just checking one of my email accounts and saw where I had an email from the IRS stating I had a refund coming.

Being suspicious I checked the actual IRS site and there was a warning about someone phising for information using what appears to be the IRS. Beware of this.

Here is the link to the true IRS site about this scam, notice it has .gov on the link but so does the phising email.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...170894,00.html

Here is what the IRS says about the specific email I received:

Updated Sept. 19, 2007 — Another recent e-mail scam tells taxpayers that the IRS has calculated their "fiscal activity" and that they are eligible to receive a tax refund of a certain amount. Taxpayers receive a page of, or are sent to, a Web site (titled "Get Your Tax Refund!") that copies the appearance of the genuine "Where's My Refund?" interactive page on the genuine IRS Web site. Like the real "Where's My Refund?" page, taxpayers are asked to enter their SSNs and filing status. However, the phony Web page asks taxpayers to enter their credit card account numbers instead of the exact amount of refund as shown on their tax return, as the real "Where's My Refund?" page does. Moreover, the IRS does not send e-mails to taxpayers to advise them of refunds or to request financial information.

 

Darn!! Here I thought you were going to confirm my suspicion that the IRS itself was a scam. Wait a minute they . . .

 

We can't go there or they will send us to the other place.

And I wouldn't call the IRS a scam, I would have other words for it.

 

I have always liked the visual from the Clancy novel when they stacked all the tax law on one table and the table collapsed under the weight.