Scam email alert: IRS Stimulus check scam

I was made aware of something today that I wanted to share with you my readers. Now I have no doubt that none of my regular readers are affected but for those that find this post as an introduction to my site I hope it helps.

Everyone is aware of the Economic Stimulus Plan authorized by President Bush and the Government. $600 is being sent out to those who filed their taxes as single, married families get about $1200 depending on how many kids they have. None of that is new news. But there are scam emails circulating the net that are using this information to phish and scam based on this check. [The following is from a scam email recieved by a friend of mine]

Sent out randomly as an email and supposedly from an IRS email account, like Internal Revenue Service (IRS) esr@irs.gov, it has a title of 2008 US Economic Stimulus Refund ! or something similar. This is a fake address, and it has nothing to do with the Government.

The body of the text may state:

Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush program to jumpstart economy. Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before June 20, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on June 20,2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus Refund, please click here.

Note: If you received this message in your SPAM/BULK folder, that is because of the large amount of e-mails we are sending out or because of the restrictions implemented by your ISP.

This is a fake and a scam.

The IRS will not contact you via your email account. They don’t even know if you have an email address. Any document from the IRS will state that it is from the Department of Treasury of which the IRS is a part. Also any official documents will be sent via the postal service and bear the U.S. seal. Not to mention that any document will be in proper American English - ie. the first sentence fails to have proper tense structure.

Any Stimulus check will be sent out to the address you have placed on your IRS tax form(s) you filed with the government. If you filed via electronic filing then you will receive your Stimulus check via direct deposit to the bank account you filed. There is no other means to get a check.

Checks are being sent out via social security number. You cannot speed up the process no matter what government department you contact. Plus any contact must be via writing and not email.

Any information from the U.S. government that could come via email will not trigger your spam filters. Nor is the Government limited on the number of emails it is able to send out or receive.

If you receive an email like this, DO NOT follow any of the links. Notify your email provider and delete the email.

Again this is a scam with the intention of either getting your bank account information, or to gather enough information to steal your identity.

I hope this helps someone out there.