Scam: The IRS (or the Department of Justice) is sending out notifications of "complaints in regards to business services" via
Example: [Collected on the Internet, May 2013]
Internal Revenue Service
You have received a complaint in regards to your business services. The complaint was filled by
Case Number: 165430554448
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.
Origins: People generally associate the name "Internal Revenue Service" (IRS) 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 excellent 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 (DOJ) sends out unsolicited
Phony "complaint in regards to your business services" messages (like the example cited above) that have been appearing in inboxes since
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 The IRS urged people not to click the link in the 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 Internal Revenue Service has alerted taxpayers to the latest versions of an
The IRS and the DOJ advise "Recipients of questionable
Last updated: 29 May 2013
