IRS Warns Taxpayers of E-mail Scam

Small business owners, franchisees and others are receiving a bogus IRS e-mail with a virus telling them that they are under tax investigation.

WASHINGTON (Blue MauMau) - The Internal Revenue Service has announced an email scam aimed at small business owners purporting to be from IRS Criminal Investigation. It falsely states the recipient is under criminal probe for submitting a false tax return to the California Franchise Tax Board. The IRS urges recipients to not click the link in the email or open the attachment. It contains a malware, specifically a Trojan virus.

“Everyone should beware of these scam artists,” said Kevin M. Brown, Acting IRS Commissioner. “Always exercise caution when you receive unsolicited e-mails or e-mails from senders you don’t know.”

InfoWorld states that "the "complaint" attachment included in this scam is actually a new type of Trojan Horse called Backdoor.Robofo, according to security vendor Symantec.

Recipients of questionable e-mails claiming to come from the IRS should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the e-mails. Instead, they should forward the e-mails to phishing@irs.gov (follow the instructions).