Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning consumers that an IRS EFTPS phishing scam is actively soliciting victims. EFTPS, the IRS’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System, is a free online service offered by the U.S. Department of Treasury to help businesses and individuals conveniently pay their taxes electronically.

Businesses and individuals have received e-mails that claim to be sent from the U.S. Treasury with the subject line: Your Tax Payment ID: 010377149 has been rejected. Urgent Report information. The body of the e-mail reads:

Your Federal Tax Payment ID: 0103758 has been rejected.
Return Reason Code R21 – The identification number used in the Company Identification Field is not valid.
Please, check the information and refer to Code R21 to get details about your company payment in transaction contacts section:

http://eftps.gov/R21 (link deactivated by BBB)
In other way forward information to your accountant adviser.

EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
PLEASE NOTE: Your tax payment is due regardless of EFTPS online
availability. In case of an emergency, you can always make your tax
payment by calling the EFTPS.

If you receive this e-mail, delete it. “The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information,” said Kim States, BBB President. “Don’t be taken in by these criminals.”

Tricking consumers into disclosing their personal and financial information, such as secret access data or credit financial loss or bank account numbers, is fraudulent activity and can result in identity theft. Such schemes perpetrated through the Internet are called “phishing” for information.

The information fraudulently obtained is then used to steal the taxpayer’s identity and financial assets. Typically, identity thieves use someone’s personal data to empty the victim’s financial accounts, run up charges on the victim’s existing credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim’s name and even file fraudulent tax returns.

When the IRS learns of new schemes involving use of the IRS name or logo, it issues consumer alerts warning taxpayers about the schemes.

The IRS also has established an electronic mailbox for taxpayers to send information about suspicious e-mails they receive which claim to come from the IRS. Taxpayers should send the information to: phishing@irs.gov.

How to Identify and Report Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites

• Do not reply.
• Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your (more…)