snopes.com: IRS / Department of Justice Complaint

Scam: The IRS (or the Department of Justice) is sending out notifications of "complaints in regards to business services" via e-mail.

Status: False.

Examples:

[Collected via e-mail, May 2007]

From: Internal Revenue Service (fraud.dep@irs.gov)
Subject: Complaint Case Number 98473953 against Edward Walsh

Dear Edward Walsh ,

You have received a complaint in regards to your business services .The complaint was filled By Mr. Kevin Ferguson on 05/29/2007/

Complaint Case Number: 875487596
Complaint made By Consumer Mr. Kevin Ferguson
Complaint registered against : - TildenPacific Property Trust
Date: 05/30/2007/
Instructions on how to resolve this complaint as well as a copy of the
original complaint are attached to this email.

Disputes involving consumer products and/or services may be arbitrated.
Unless they directly relate to the contract that is the basis of this
dispute, the following claims will be considered for arbitration only if
all parties agree in writing that the arbitrator may consider them:
Claims based on product liability;
Claims for personal injuries;
Claims that have been resolved by a previous court action, arbitration, or
written agreement between the parties.

The decision as to whether your dispute or any part of it can be
arbitrated rests solely with the IRS.

The IRS offers a binding arbitration service for disputes involving
marketplace transactions. Arbitration is a convenient, civilized way to
settle disputes quickly and fairly, without the costs associated with
other legal options.
© 2007 Council of IRS, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Collected via e-mail, November 2007]

Dear Mr. Jane Beckington,

A complaint has been filled against the company you are affiliated to (
The Perfect Bite Company ) in regards to the domain of business activity.
The complaint was filled by Mr. Harry Johnson on 12/01/2007 and has been
forwarded to us and the IRS .
Complaint Case Number: #3B5322 Date: 12/01/2007

A copy of the original complaint and the contact information of Mr. Harry
Johnson has been attached to this e-mail.Please print and keep this copy
for your personal records.

Disputes involving consumer products and/or services may be arbitrated.
Unless they directly relate to the contract that is the basis of this
dispute, the following claims will be considered for arbitration only if
all parties agree in writing that the arbitrator may consider them:

Claims based on product liability;
Claims for personal injuries;
Claims that have been resolved by a previous court action, arbitration, or
written agreement between the parties.

The decision as to whether your dispute or any part of it can be
arbitrated rests solely with the US Department of Justice.
The Department of Justice offers a binding arbitration service for
disputes involving marketplace transactions. Arbitration is a convenient,
civilized way to settle disputes quickly and fairly, without the costs
associated with other legal options.

Origins: People

generally associate the name "Internal Revenue Service" with "trouble" (i.e., rarely does an envelope from the IRS bear good news), so messages that appear to issue from the IRS usually grab a recipient's attention and are therefore good bait for phishing schemes and other scams. The key point to keep in mind to protect oneself from this form of fraud is that neither the IRS nor the Department of Justice sends out unsolicited e-mails or ask taxpayers to supply detailed personal and financial information (including PINs and passwords) via e-mail.

The phony "complaint in regards to your business services" messages (like the example cited above) that began to appear in inboxes in May 2007 use the lure of seemingly official IRS communications to trick recipients into clicking on links or opening attachments, with predictably harmful results. In this case, the payoff was apparently not the usual direct phishing scheme (i.e., an attempt to lure the unwitting into providing sensitive personal and financial information) but the planting of a Trojan Horse on recipients' computers:

The Internal Revenue Service has alerted taxpayers to the latest versions of an e-mail scam intended to fool people into believing they are under investigation by the agency's Criminal Investigation division.

The e-mail purporting to be from IRS Criminal Investigation falsely states that the person is under a criminal probe for submitting a false tax return to the California Franchise Tax Board. The e-mail seeks to entice people to click on a link or open an attachment to learn more information about the complaint against them. The IRS warned people that the e-mail link and attachment is a Trojan Horse that can take over the person’s computer hard drive and allow someone to have remote access to the computer.

The IRS urged people not to click the link in the e-mail or open the attachment.

Similar e-mail variations suggest a customer has filed a complaint against a company and the IRS can act as an arbitrator. The latest versions appear aimed at business taxpayers as well as individual taxpayers.

The IRS and the DOJ advise that "Recipients of questionable e-mails claiming to come from" either agency should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the e-mails. Instead, they should forward the e-mails to phishing@irs.gov or file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

Last updated: 3 December 2007

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