The Internal Revenue Service is warning college students of an ongoing IRS-impersonation scam that appears to primarily target educational institutions, including students and staff who have “.edu” email addresses.
The IRS’ phishing@irs.gov has received complaints about the impersonation scam in recent weeks from people with email addresses ending in “.edu.” The phishing emails appear to target university and college students from both public and private, profit and non-profit institutions.
Taxpayers who believe they have a pending refund can easily check on its status at “Where’s My Refund?” on IRS.gov.
The suspect emails display the IRS logo and use various subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculation of your tax refund payment.” It asks people to click a link and submit a form to claim their refund.
The IRS WILL NEVER send emails or initiate phone calls that ask for personal and financial information.
The phishing website requests taxpayers provide their:
- Social Security Number
- First Name
- Last Name
- Date of Birth
- Prior Year Annual Gross Income (AGI)
- Driver’s License Number
- Current Address
- City
- State/U.S. Territory
- ZIP Code/Postal Code
- Electronic Filing PIN
People who receive this scam email should not click on the link in the email, but they can report it to the IRS. For security reasons, save the email using “save as” and then send that attachment to phishing@irs.gov or forward the email as…
