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Stimulus Checks Spur Increase In Phishing Scams, IRS Warns

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Jacob Schneider

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2008

Seizing on the major fiscal news of the year, a rash of Internet scammers is trying to use federal economic stimulus checks as a hook to steal personal financial information, the Internal Revenue Service warns.

Almost 700 such scam attempts were reported in May and June, bringing the tally for 2008 to about 1,600. Victims of these fraud attempts — which are called "phishing" scams — received official-looking e-mails purporting to be from the IRS and requesting personal information to expedite the receipt of their checks. With an address and Social Security number in hand, a scammer can then open up fraudulent credit card accounts or take out false loans, damaging the victim's credit rating.

"Generally you can look at them and find grammar errors and punctuation errors, and they're not professional," said IRS spokeswoman Gloria Sutton. "If you receive an unsolicited e-mail purporting to be from the IRS, don't open it. We do not send unsolicited e-mails. The IRS would have no reason to ask for your pin number or bank account."

Rather, the IRS asks that anyone who receives a phishing e-mail forward it to phishing@irs.gov so that the agency can trace the scam's origins. Between 2006, when the agency opened the account, and last November, the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration had identified host sites in at least 27 countries in addition to the United States.

The economic stimulus payment scam wave is hardly the first time that scammers have taken advantage of current events to execute identity theft, said Sally Hurme, senior project manager with AARP financial security in Washington. Other recent frauds have used natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina to drum up donations for nonexistent charities.

"The key about any scam is that the scamsters like to follow the news," said Hurme. "Even before the president signed the bill, the IRS reported that there were phishing schemes popping up."

In other scams reported this year, victims have received e-mails appearing to be from the IRS and offering tax refunds in exchange for personal information. Sometimes scammers also will send e-mails with phony links, which install malicious code on the victim's computers.

Reporter Jacob Schneider can be reached at (813) 259-7850 or jschneider@tampatrib.com.

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