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NEW WAVE OF EMAIL SCAMS WARNING


Lee B

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A new wave of fraudulent emails that purport to be from the IRS and financial institutions is trying to entice recipients to open documents containing computer malware, the agency said in its latest warning on tax scams. 

The malware, known as Emotet, generally is disguised as an email containing a tax transcript from the IRS, banks,  and other financial institutions. The goal of the scam is to trick recipients into opening infected documents, the agency said Nov. 19 in a news release (IR-2018-226). The IRS, along with its Security Summit partners, said the scheme is especially problematic because the malware may infect a computer network and take months to successfully remove.

In recent weeks, the email indicates it was sent from “IRS Online.” The scam email carries an attachment labeled “Tax Account Transcript” or something similar, and the subject line uses some variation of the phrase “tax transcript.” These clues may change with each version of the malware, the IRS said, adding that a substantial amount of malicious Emotet emails recently were forwarded to [email protected].

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a warning in July about previous versions of the Emotet in Alert (TA18-201A) Emotet Malware. The group called the destructive software “among the most costly and destructive malware affecting state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments, and the private and public sectors.”

As a reminder, the IRS does not send unsolicited emails to taxpayers, including a tax transcript, which is a summary of a tax return. Taxpayers should not open an unsolicited email or the attachment. Suspected fraudulent emails should be deleted or forwarded to [email protected], the agency said. Employees receiving such emails on an employer’s computer should notify the company’s technology department.

The warning from the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners was part of an ongoing campaign to provide ways to protect sensitive data and prevent tax fraud. The summit, which was formed in 2015, combines the IRS with representatives of the software industry, tax-preparation firms, payroll and tax financial product processors, and state tax administrators to fight identity theft and tax fraud.

If it looks suspicious, it probably is !  Let's be very careful out there !

 

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