Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- This time of year scammers are claiming to represent the Internal Revenue Service, hoping to steal your identity or your money.
Investigators say crooks will use all sorts of tactics to get your personal information, but the IRS says don't be fooled.
"Crooks send out unsolicited e-mail or shoot you an IM or something through Twitter, asking you to send them your personal information, maybe your date of birth, social security number, account number, credit card number," said IRS special agent Ron Marker.
The IRS calls it a phishing scam. Marker says these crooks are pretty sophisticated and will use anything to make their scam look legit.
"They'll use IRS logos, treasury department logos, things like that," he said.
They'll even use phony web addresses that, at first glance, make an e-mail look like it's coming from the IRS, creating variations of the official IRS.gov web address like IRS.com or IRS.net.
"They might use a space here and there or add another letter," Marker said. "You see that IRS and you think, ‘Oh, this must be OK.' And they'll click on it and go through the motions, and their identity will be stolen."
Marker says people need to remember the IRS will never ask for personal information without requesting an in-person meeting.
"Part of the reason why we don't do that is for this reason: e-mail and internet aren't to the point where it's secure enough to send that information on, as far as the government is concerned, anyways," he said.
So far, Marker says the IRS is not seeing this happen in Utah -- but it has happened in the past, and he says it's important people know where to go to report phishing scams. That's on the IRS's official website at [IRS.gov. Marker says if a message looks like it could be suspicious, the best thing to do is contact the official IRS website.
A final word of warning:
"Be careful with what you're doing. Take time to read the e-mails," Marker said. "Make sure you know the source and know what kind of information you're giving."
E-mail: niyamba@ksl.com](http://www.irs.gov/index.html)
