IRS Warns of New Online Tax Scams: Protect Yourself

Scam artists exploiting tax season have devised a range of new online cons: fake tax documents that contain malicious surprises; mass distribution of keyloggers aimed at snatching the identity of PC-based tax filers; and e-mail messages containing links to Web sites that promise new tax code information but instead push malware onto your PC.

That's not all, according to the Internal Revenue Service. This year, identity thieves are not just trying to gain access to your bank account or to open lines of credit in your name. Scammers are on the prowl for ordinary citizens' identities that they can they can use in filing phony tax returns and fraudulently claiming refunds, as well as to swipe rebates associated with the 2008 federal economic stimulus package.

Tax Scam 2.0

 Security experts at Webroot Software report seeing a new wave of keyloggers (programs that secretly record every character you type), system monitors, and viruses leading up to prime tax filing season. Webroot's Threat Research Team says that more than 1200 new key-logging programs and 336 versions of system monitoring spyware have been found and defined in the past month alone.

Why the increase? Fewer taxpayers are using old-fashioned paper forms for preparing and submitting their taxes. According to Webroot's figures, a record 22 million taxpayers filed their taxes from a home computer last year, up 11 percent from the previous year. Scammers know this and figure that your identity is especially vulnerable to theft when you're filling out your tax documents with a software program or filing them over the Internet.

Stimulus Package Stimulates Scammers

Several states are warning that con artists are using thehighly publicized rebate checks associated with the 2008 federal economic stimulus package as a ploy to get you to divulge personal financial information.

Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley says that some state residents have received bogus e-mail messages that purport to be from a government agency such as the IRS or Social Security Administration. The messages request personal information that supposedly would expedite the turnaround time of either a tax refund or a stimulus rebate check.

For the record, the federal government expects to issue economic stimulus rebate checks sometime in May or June. IRS refund checks typically arrive within three weeks of the date when you e-file your return.

Coakley warns that some fraudulent e-mail messages contain links to fake government Web sites that request your Social Security number and bank account numbers so that the IRS can process a rebate check. If you resist disclosing the information, the site informs you that you won't be able to receive your rebate.