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Help !! Spoof Or Serious ??

im.out.of.hear - 2009-10-05 03:10

i found this in my inbox the other day,not sure if its spoof or not,i'm not rich and dont earn lots of cash..i'm actually thinking it could be GH,if it is spoof i will be definately changing my email address...

Anyhow..Check this out..
========================================

Taxpayer ID: paul.brooks-00000242xxxxxxxxxx
Tax Type: INCOME TAX
Issue: Unreported/Underreported Income (Fraud Application)

Please review your tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website (click on the link below):

review tax statement for taxpayer id: paul.brooks-00000242xxxxxxxxx

billy.the.binman - 2009-10-05 04:10

if you directly copied that email id say its a spoof, since 'review' in the last line isnt capitalised, a genuine email wouldnt make such a petty mistake.

what is the reply to email address? IRS@yahoo.com?

also i would have thought such a thing would be conducted by post.

id hazard a guess its that plum GH.

you could always post the link on here for us to check out. since the link was included in the email its more than likely a spoof one.

isnt it called the inland revenue in the UK, IRS in the USA?

smells fishier than an unwashed hooker



id put it down to spoof and a poorly thought out one at that.


the only concern would be that they have your name - but then how many people are there that bombards you with stupid emails and knows your name?

what comes after F and before I?


oh so many questions...

im.out.of.hear - 2009-10-05 05:05

well i replied to the email and i've got no response,so i'm not sure what that is all about..i've asked friends that earn more than me,sell lots more syuff on ebay than me,but they have'nt had one,i think its high time i changed my email...sack all the crap..GH tossbag knows my name aswell so it could be him..

billy.the.binman - 2009-10-05 06:05

yeah not a bad idea, that will keep him off your back for good.

end of the day we dont have anything to do with the irs over here and they have nothing to do with us, simple as that.

that email seems to be full of holes i wouldnt worry about it.

ao - 2009-10-05 14:04

Yeah, pretty basic phishing bait email I'm afraid. What you need to check for is whether the email came with a auto-open attachment, you may have malware on your system. You need to run a antivirus scan.

Read this

2steppa - 2009-10-06 00:28

Replying to this kind of email is pointless, it will likely never be seen by anyone and if it is it will just confirm you as a valid recipient for more of this kind of BS in the future.

More concerning would be if you 'clicked the link' as the mail suggested as it's a link to an executable file. If your security settings allowed the file to run your antivirus software *should* alert you/block the file.

im.out.of.hear - 2009-10-06 02:12

Thanks for that link cris,soon as i read that,i did a full scan of my laptop,and scanned it for malware too,it seems all clear,but it just shows,some prople have nothing better to do other than create garbage viruses,dont they have a life or something ??
also cheers steppa...

isolator42 - 2009-10-23 07:40

good to hear no harm was done.

The funnyist thing about all of this is that you thought those b4stards at The Revenue are up-to-date enough to actually use email.
Not a chance.
I'm self employed, so I pay my VAT quarterly online & without fail, EVERY 3 months they send me a letter asking why I haven't sent it to them yet through the post. Hopeless.

davebush - 2009-11-30 13:01

paul....i think anything you get from the inland revenue ends in .gov this is spam and they rarely contact you by email...it is proper paper correspondence sent to the address where your N I number is registered...plus all employed and self employed workers have a UTR (unique tax reference number) this should be quoted on correspondence from the revenue