The tide is high and the ‘phish’erman are out.

Over the last week I have been contacted by several clients regarding emails they have received, allegedly from the IRS. These are phishing expeditions. Like all good scams the email uses words that are guaranteed to attract your attention. In this case “fraud” and “refund” appear prominently. The scammers provide a link for the recipient to click which brings you to a web site that looks like the official IRS web site. If you fill in the blanks you have opened the door to your banking, credit cards and personal identity.

The IRS will never contact taxpayers by email. On the rare occasion that you are working on a specific tax matter the revenue agent may provide you with an email address for you to submit documents however this will only happen after you have been contacted by mail and have opened a line of communication with a specific individual employed by the IRS.

If you receive email correspondence from any taxing authority presume it to be a scam and then contact your CPA who can, on your behalf, contact the taxing authority to determine if in fact there is a tax matter that requires your attention.