Phishing Part II

One of the Ed Tech Center staff members at JCCC (Davy Jones) pointed out, after yesterday’s tip on phishing, that the IRS does have a site with instructions for helping them shut down phishing schemes at: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=155682,00.html

The instructions for submitting suspected bogus email messages are at http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html. Though they indicate you can “forward’ the email to phishing@irs.gov it’s actually better to send them an email and attach the bogus email to the message you send. This preserves the header information that enables the IRS to better follow-up and track the sender of the fraudulent message. To attach the message (using Outlook 2007) you’d:

1. Open a new email message,
2. Address it to phishing@irs.gov,
3. Enter a short Subject line such as: “Possible Phishing Message,”
4. In the text area enter a short message, if you wish,
5. Select the Insert tab,
6. Select the Attach Item option,
7. When the Insert Item dialog box appears (see image below), navigate to the suspected phishing email message and,
8. Double-click to attach it to your message. Now you’re ready to send the email message.