{"id":59978,"date":"2018-12-19T12:36:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T18:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=59978"},"modified":"2018-12-19T12:36:24","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T18:36:24","slug":"irs-issues-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/irs-issues-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"IRS Issues Warning &#8211; Watch Out For Fraudulent Tax Emails"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h3 xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Scammers Portray IRS in Latest Phishing Scam<\/h3>\n<p xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Earlier this week, the IRS issued a warning to tax payers regarding a fraudulent email that has been impersonating the agency.\u00a0 The email includes tax transcripts, in an attempt to get the users to click on the documents, which contain malware.\u00a0 The biggest risk would be employees clicking on these emails on company networks.\u00a0 By doing so, the malware would spread network-wide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p xml:lang=\"EN-US\">The scam email includes an attachment labeled &#8220;tax account transcript&#8221; or something similar, with a subject line using some\u00a0variation of the phrase &#8220;tax transcript.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p xml:lang=\"EN-US\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.klfy.com\/news\/local\/irs-warning-of-phishing-email-scam-containing-dangerous-malware\/1663681063\">KLFY News 10<\/a>, this malware, known as Emotet, generally poses as specific financial institutions in its effort to trick people into opening infected documents.\u00a0 This time, they&#8217;ve portrayed the IRS.\u00a0\u00a0Cyber security experts have labeled Emotet one of the most costly and destructive malware variants in the wild.<\/p>\n<h4 xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Proceed with Caution<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p xml:lang=\"EN-US\">The IRS has the following suggestions if you receive this email scam:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Do not open the email or attachment.<\/li>\n<li xml:lang=\"EN-US\">Delete or forward the email to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:phishing@irs.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">phishing@irs.gov<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li xml:lang=\"EN-US\">If an email goes to your business, notify the company&#8217;s technology professionals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p xml:lang=\"EN-US\">The bottom line &#8211; the IRS does not, and will not, send out unsolicited emails.\u00a0 Therefore,\u00a0if you receive an unsolicited email claiming to be from them&#8211; do not open it, it is a scam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scammers Portray IRS in Latest Phishing Scam Earlier this week, the IRS issued a warning to tax payers regarding a fraudulent email that has been impersonating the agency.\u00a0 The email includes tax transcripts, in an attempt to get the users to click on the documents, which contain malware.\u00a0 The biggest risk would be employees clicking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":56197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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