The Internal Revenue Service is warning consumers to beware of a new email phishing scam in which fraudulent emails purport to come from the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service, complete with a bogus case number.
The fake emails may include the following message: “Your reported 2013 income is flagged for review due to a document processing error. Your case has been forwarded to the Taxpayer Advocate Service for resolution assistance. To avoid delays processing your 2013 filing contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service for resolution assistance.”
Recipients are directed to click on links that claim to provide information about the “advocate” assigned to the taxpayer’s case or that let them “review reported income.” The links then lead to Web pages that solicit personal information from the recipient.
Taxpayers who get these messages should not respond to the email or click on the links, the IRS warned. Instead, they should forward the scam emails to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. For more information, visit the IRS's
The Taxpayer Advocate Service is a legitimate IRS organization that helps taxpayers resolve federal tax issues that have not been resolved through the normal IRS channels. The IRS, including the TAS, does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, texting or any social media, the IRS cautioned.
Last week, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration warned of another scam involving phone calls claiming to originate from the IRS (see
For more information on various scams to guard against, see the “
