What You Can Do to Report Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites

In an effort to protect you, our valued clients and friends, from unsolicited email communication claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), we would like to provide you with the procedures for reporting these fraudulent activities to the IRS. Also, please note the following:

• The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail. In addition, the IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail or ask taxpayers for their PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

If you receive an email claiming to be from the IRS that contains a request for personal information –

1. Do not reply.
2. Do not open any attachments, which may contain malicious code that can infect your computer.
3. Do not click on any links.
4. Forward the email as-is, to phishing@irs.gov.
5. After you forward the email, delete the original email message.

How to forward a phishing e-mail

It is important that the original communication you received is included, as well as Internet headers. The following instructions will assist you in forwarding a phishing communication to the IRS.

In MS Outlook
You can forward a message without double clicking to open it in a new window. Highlight the e-mail in the message list of your inbox and follow the directions for your particular mail client:

1. Create a new message
2. Drag and drop the phishing e-mail into the body of the new message. This ensures the original message is contained as an attachment with the appropriate Internet headers)
3. Address the message to phishing@irs.gov and send it

Or

1. Open the phishing e-mail message*
2. Select View > Options. The Internet headers will appear. You can copy these as you normally copy text
3. Forward the original message to phishing@irs.gov, with the copied message headers pasted into this message

To learn more about the IRS’s privacy policy and what to do if you receive suspicious communication claiming to be from the IRS, visit http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html.