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.

The Department of the Treasury Does Not Do Business This Way

At least two members of the staff at JCCC received the following email “supposedly” from the “Department of the Treasury.” The email is not from the Department of the Treasury and the senders are phishing (trying to get personal information from you in order to defraud you, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing). Here are a couple of obvious clues:

1. Hover over the Click Here link and you’ll see that the link address is an AOL (America Online) address, yet the “From” field indicates the email is from service@usa.org. Anytime there’s this type of discrepancy, be leery and assume the message is bogus.
2. Government agencies rarely allow obvious spelling errors to enter their communications (“u” for “you”).
3. You can spot bogus, phishing messages by their use of such phrases as “"Verify your account" (businesses should never ask you to send usernames, passwords, or confidential, personal data such as social security numbers through the mail), "If you don't respond within 48 hours, your account will be closed" (don’t fall for any type of pressure that encourages you to respond without thinking), or "Dear Valued Customer" (these messages are sent in bulk and are not personalized).

For more detail check out Microsoft’s anti-phishing site at http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/phishing/identify.mspx or the University of Minnesota’s Safe Computing site at http://safecomputing.umn.edu/safepractices/phishing.html.

From: Department of the Treasury [mailto:service@usa.org] Sent: Friday, June
27, 2008 6:15 AM

Subject: Notice from Department of the Treasury

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you
are eligible to receive a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal
Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $189.60. Please submit the tax refund request
and allow us 6-9 days in order to IWP the data received. If u don't receive your
refund within 9 business days from the original IRS mailing date shown, you can
start a refund trace online.

If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org. is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes. If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing the recipient's name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers,
directors, trustees, members, or major contributors.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here

This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.

Sincerely Yours,
John Stewart
Director, Exempt. Organization
Rulings and Agreements Letter
Internal Revenue Service