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Fraud Alerts IRS warns of new scams against taxpayers April 24, 2008—IRS has posted new warnings about phone and e-mail scams, both tied to this year’s economic stimulus payments and tax season, by fraudsters seeking to acquire taxpayers’ financial institution account numbers and other sensitive data. In one of the scenarios, people have been contacted by phone and told by the caller that they need to provide their account numbers in order to get the stimulus payments. But IRS isn’t calling or e-mailing people for this information; it’s making the payments based on information in taxpayers’ tax returns. In another case, people are receiving an e-mail with a link to a form where recipients are told they must provide information to receive their payments by direct deposit. IRS says the senders are probably really trying to get recipients’ personal and financial information so they can clean out their accounts. And taxpayers that want to receive tax refunds, or stimulus payment, by direct deposit are already instructed to provide the required information on their tax returns, it notes. For more on the latest scams reported by IRS, click here. The Secrets of Mystery Shopping Revealed New Phishing Scam: 'Vishing' - short for 'voice phishing' - Now that consumers are getting wise to phishing emails (attempts to get you to disclose your credit account numbers or other private information through email messages set up to look like they are sent from legitimate sources) the scammers have added a new twist. Instead of directing you to click on a link that takes you to a fake site where they expect you to enter your private information, they now direct you to call a special phone number. Once you call, an automated system asks you to verify your identity by punching in your credit card number. Of course, if you do that, you have just given the thieves open access to charge up your account.
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Beware of fraudulent emails...