Tax Season = Scam Season

Thursday January 31, 2008

Its that time of the year. Today is the deadline for businesses to get their year-end tax information- W2's, 1099's, etc.- mailed out to individuals. February kicks off the tax season, keeping accountants and income tax refund companies like H&R Block busy for the next 10 weeks until D-Day: April 15. For some, it is like a wonderful surprise. How much of a windfall gift will the IRS be sending you this year? For some, it is simply scary dealing with the IRS. How much do you owe, how are you going to pay the IRS, and how long can you put it off? Either way, 'tis the season of the IRS. The scammers, malicious developers and evil hackers of the world are not oblivious to this fact either. Expect to see email scams like this one, or possibly even phone-based scams such as this. Be skeptical. Have some common sense. I wrote an article previously about how to detect and avoid scams like these. My article was focused around attempts to exploit Hurricane Katrina, but the steps are the same. Take a look at Beware Hurricane Katrina Scams and apply the information from that article to any alleged emails or phone calls from the IRS. Have a

http://netsecurity.about.com/b/2008/01/31/tax-season-scam-season.htm