This IRS Letter to Your College Mailbox Is a Scam
The IRS has issued a phishing scam warning targeting college employees and students, especially those with the “.edu” extension in their email. The scam uses fake IRS email templates to trick people into providing their personal information in order to claim a “tax refund.”
What to look for
The fake emails carry the IRS logos and will contain subject lines such as Tax Refund or Recalculating Your Tax Refund. Recipients are encouraged to click a link and submit a form to claim a refund, but the link actually takes you to a phishing website that steals personal information such as social security number, gross income, or IRS email PIN. The IRS reports that the scam targets students and employees in both public and private schools, especially if you have an .edu email address.
“These scammers know that many people are looking forward to tax refunds and may not look closely at who actually sent the email,” Luis D. Garcia, an IRS spokesman, told the Detroit Free Press.
The IRS can reach you in three ways: by mail, by phone or by a personal visit (and even a phone call or personal visit will be preceded by a letter sent by mail), so be careful with emails or text messages as they are. almost certainly a scam. If you receive this scam email, please do not click on any links or logos and report it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. If you would like to know more about the pending refund, you can check its status here .
Prevent Theft With This IRS Tool
If you have been the victim of identity fraud, the IRS recommends that you obtain a PIN to protect your identity. The IP-PIN is a secret six-digit number that is included on your tax return and will prevent identity thieves from sending fraudulent tax returns to your name (for more information on how they work, check out this Lifehacker post ). An anti-identity theft tool can be found here .