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.

Think you can get rich, overnight from home? - 9.5.2007.1

Have you ever been up at about 2 a.m. and noticed some of the infomercials that can be on at that time. These aren't just infomercials; they are almost gifts of manna from heaven. These infomercials drone on for maybe an hour may be more at a time. Luckily for those that happen to have insomnia, or are up for whatever reason, these individuals have the secret to wealth that the average person is too busy sleeping to hear.

One of the more recent ones that I've seen was on today, featuring a guy named Jeff Paul. This guy is just so special. For a mere pittance you are able to receive three websites that will sell various products. Instantly. According to his infomercial it will only take three clicks to set up these websites. That's it; no other effort is needed to generate exorbitant amounts of money on a daily basis.

If anyone believes that this system will make them money, you need to be smacked in the face with a 2 x 4. I cannot say that no one has ever made money via the system, nor will I say it is impossible. But I will say that the probability of consistently making money is equivalent, in my opinion, to winning the lottery for about $50 million. The odds I believe are so bad that to compare it to gambling would be like saying jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge might not kill you. It could happen, but you'd be a fool to try.

Who are the people that do this stuff?

Do you want to know the real secret to success? I'm being serious. I can tell you a system that will make a ton of money, and it's completely legal. Probably wouldn't cost more than pennies on the dollar.

Got your attention? I should not. And I'll tell you why. No one does anything involving money for free. It's true, and we all know that. There is absolutely no reason why anyone who's smart enough to make millions of dollars via some system, would want to share that same system and give themselves massive competition. It makes no business sense. Think of it like this, if you can sell a pencil that cost you five cents for five dollars, would you turn around and tell everyone how they could do the same thing? Even if you could only sell thousands of pencils why would you want to tell anyone else and sell tens of pencils? Does that make any sense when you think about it?

So you're probably wondering why these guys make these infomercials. Because they don't intend to sell anything other than an idea. The idea how to get your money. The best of them don't even care about keeping your money. They just want to hold it for a while. Either way, the goal is to put your money and the money of thousands of other people in one bank account and draw interest on money. That's how they get rich. Legal and simple.

What would be my idea? My idea would be a book, a short one, which says exactly what I just described. In a lot more paragraphs. I would sell the book for maybe $25 or $50. I would then go out and make an infomercial with the best looking models I can afford. A really good script, the women in tight fitting deep cleavage clothing, the guys on a beach without T-shirts and a six-pack and I'm done. Buy advertising at the absolutely worst time of day, from 2 a.m. until 5:30 a.m., and everything is in place. The setup costs are minimal. As long as the infomercial in the booklet announced someone could get their money back in 45 to 60 days, life is golden. That's roughly two months of interest.

After the first few hundred people. You can go out, hire a bunch of telemarketers make a new upgraded version of the book and sell that for twice the original price and life is great. Quite possibly at that point, you can start making new infomercials, stating that you are successful businessman, who makes thousands per day or tens of thousands per month. Technically, you'd be honest.

Seriously people, who falls for this stuff?

And by the way, if you were wondering why I would say this it's because it helps me make money. I have advertising, like many other websites, and the more people who read this the more money the advertisers pay me. It's one of the reasons why I write these posts. The other reason is because I love to hear my voice, and I have something to say, and I think are important things to be said. But I won't lie and say money is not also a motivation. I just happen to have integrity and a soul. I feel the people promoting these get rich quick schemes don't.

Just my version of a public service announcement.

This is what I think, what do you think?