Report Phishing, E-mail to IRS

What You Can Do to Report Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites

If you receive an unsolicited e-mail communication claiming to be from the IRS, please forward the original message to: phishing@irs.gov using the instructions provided below. You may not receive an individual response to your e-mail because of the volume of reports we receive each day. The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail. In addition, the IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail or ask taxpayers for the PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Do not open any attachments to questionable e-mails, which may contain malicious code that will infect your computer. Please be advised that the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers via e-mails. How to forward a phishing e-mail It is important that the original communication you received is included, as well as Internet headers. The following instructions will assist you in forwarding a phishing communication to the IRS. In MS Outlook You can forward a message without double clicking to open it in a new window. Highlight the e-mail in the message list of your inbox and follow the directions for your particular mail client: Create a new message Drag and drop the phishing e-mail into the body of the new message. This ensures the original message is contained as an attachment with the appropriate Internet headers) Address the message to phishing@irs.gov and send it Or Open the phishing e-mail message* Select View > Options. The Internet headers will appear. You can copy these as you normally copy text Forward the original message to phishing@irs.gov, with the copied message headers pasted into this message In Outlook Express You can forward a message without double clicking to open it in a new window. Highlight the e-mail in the message list of your inbox and follow the directions for your particular mail client: Create a new message Drag and drop the phishing e-mail into the body of the new message. This ensures the original message is contained as an attachment with the appropriate Internet headers) Address the message to phishing@irs.gov and send it Or Open the phishing e-mail message* Select File > Properties > Details. The Internet headers will appear. You can copy these as you normally copy text Forward the original message to phishing@irs.gov, with the copied message headers pasted into this message In Mulberry You can forward a message without double clicking to open it in a new window. Highlight the e-mail in the message list of your inbox and follow the directions for your particular mail client: Select Message > Forward Select the option Include Headers in quote. Click the Forward button. Address the forwarded message to phishing@irs.gov In Netscape/Mozilla/Thunderbird Mail Select View > Headers > All Select Message > Forward As > Inline Address the forwarded message to phishing@irs.gov If you are using an alternative to these e-mail clients, please consult your provider for instructions on how to forward messages with Internet headers. If the methods above do not work, at a minimum, please send the underlying link of the phishing Web site. If the suspicious e-mail includes a file attachment, it is safer to simply highlight the message and forward it. Some configurations, especially in Windows environments, may allow the execution of arbitrary code upon opening and viewing a malicious e-mail message. The IRS can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you forward to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites. What to do if you become aware of an IRS related phishing or bogus Web site If you identify a Web site posing as IRS.gov, please forward the URL to: phishing@irs.gov If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail. Get your tax information at IRS.gov, the only Web site sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service. Sample of phishing e-mails First sample of an actual phishing e-mail - PDF Second sample of an actual phishing e-mail - PDF All IRS.gov Web page addresses begin with, http://www.irs.gov/ Is it a phishing Web site? - PDF Are you a victim of Identity Theft? Contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338) Visit the IRS Identity Theft resource page You may also report misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration toll-free at 1-800-366-4484. Additional resources Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft IR-2006-49, IRS Establishes e-Mail Box for Taxpayers to Report Phony e-Mails Current tax scams You can also forward suspicious e-mails to the Federal Trade Commission at: spam@uce.gov or contact them at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338) Having trouble downloading a PDF