The latest IRS scam to be wary of involves an email that you receive purportedly from the IRS informing you “After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax return of $253.04.  To receive your return, you need to register for an e-Services account:  Click here to register.  If you already have an e-Services account click her to login.”  If you are knowledgeable, you will know that a tax refund is not referred to as a “return.”   However, if you fall for the bait, you will not get any money from the IRS, but clicking on either link will result in your unwittingly downloading dangerous keystroke logging malware onto your computer which enables the identity thief to steal all of the information from your computer such as your credit card numbers, Social Security number, passwords and financial account information which will ultimately result in your becoming a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

If you receive an email from the IRS, you can immediately ignore and delete it because the IRS does not communicate with taxpayers through email.  They only use regular mail to communicate with taxpayers.  It is also important to remember that you never should click on links in emails, tweets, or text messages because even if the source appears legitimate, you cannot be sure that they indeed are legitimate.  It is also possible that the legitimate source of the email, tweet or text message may have had their account hacked into so that you would trust the communication and click on the link.  If you have any concerns about the legitimacy of a forwarded link, contact the person or entity sending it to you by phone to confirm its accuracy.  Finally, as a last line of protection, you should make sure that you not only have a good firewall and computer security software, but that it is constantly updated in order to protect you from the latest viruses and other malware.