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The Internal Revenue Servicerecently alerted taxpayers about Internet scams in which fraudulent e-mails aresent that appear to be from the IRS. The e-mails direct the consumer to a Weblink that requests personal and financial information, such as Social Security,bank account or credit card numbers, according to IRS.gov.

The practice of trickingvictims into revealing private personal and financial information over theInternet is known as “phishing” for information. The IRS does not send outunsolicited e-mails or ask for detailed personal and financial information.Additionally, the IRS never asks people for the PIN numbers, passwords orsimilar secret access information for their credit card, bank or otherfinancial accounts.

Recipients of questionablee-mails claiming to come from the IRS should not open any attachments or clickon any links contained in the e-mails. Instead, they should forward the e-mailsto phishing@irs.gov(the instructions may be found on IRS.gov by entering the term phishing in thesearch box) or notify the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA’s)toll-free hotline at 1-800-366-4484. The IRS and TIGTA work with the U.S.Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and various Internet serviceproviders and international CERT teams to have the phishing sites taken offlineas soon as they are reported.

Recently, the IRS has becomeaware of commercial Internet sites that bear a striking resemblance to the realIRS site or that contain the some form of the IRS name in their address butwith a .com, .net, .org or other designation in the address instead of .gov.Though these sites may not be phishing sites — that is, they may not requestprivate financial data in an attempt to steal the consumer’s identity — the IRSurges consumers not to be misled into thinking such sites are the genuine IRSWeb site or have some connection to the real IRS.

The only genuine IRS Website is IRS.gov.