
Phishing bait: E-mailed notices that appear to be IRS notifications of criminal complaints.
Example: [Collected via e-mail, January 2015]
Dear business owner,
A criminal complaint has been filled against your company.
Your company is being accused of trying to commit tax evasion schemes.
The full text of the complaint file ( PDF type ) can be viewed on the IRS website, by visiting the following link:
https://www.irs.gov/complaints/view_complaint.aspx?complaint_id=334687&hash=934yt8dhui8g55
An official response from your part is required, in order to take further action.
Please review the charges brought forward in the complaint file, and contact us as soon as possible by:
Telephone Assistance for Businesses:
Toll-Free, 1-800-829-4933
Email: complaints@irs.gov
Origins: Notices purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) make good phishing bait for a number of reasons:
- Notices from institutions of the federal government (especially an agency with the ominous reputation of the IRS) grab people's attention.
- Unlike other phishing schemes that emulate mailings from various private financial institutions (e.g., Bank of America) and are therefore easily recognized as phony by many recipients (because they do no business with those companies), a forged IRS notice has the potential to take in a much larger pool of victims, as most adult
U.S. residents have dealings with that agency. - Many people regard the IRS as a daunting and ominous agency, so the suggestion the IRS might be pursuing a criminal complaint over tax evasion issues is something that could cause consternation even among those totally innocent of any such wrongdoing.
A January 2015 mass phish
The IRS never sends out unsolicited
The IRS says about such
Do not open any attachments to questionable
The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through
Last updated: 21 January 2015