Scammers are at it again, flooding us with texts and emails that involve phony pitches about coronavirus relief money, known as Economic Impact Payments.
One email, pretending to be from the Internal Revenue Service, asked taxpayers to “please re-enter the correct banking data previously provided to the IRS.”
Another was titled: “Third Round of Economic Impact Payments Status Available.”
That email included the greeting “Dear Customers IRS,” then went on to tell taxpayers they were eligible for $815.05. To get the money, they had to click on a blue box marked “Claim My Payment.”
Scam calls sell student loan forgiveness. Don’t fall for it.
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Clicking on a link or box can open the door to scammers who may attempt to download malware onto your computer to steal important ID information.
The email tried its best to sound official but sounded super strange, ending with a footnote: “For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time. Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.”
Indicated? What? Were the scammers, maybe, thinking of indicted? While we’re at it, “criminally pursued” isn’t exactly a phrase you hear on “Law & Order” either.
The IRS announced Thursday that it received a record number of complaints about Economic Impact Payment scams in June and July, a level not seen in more than a decade. Specific numbers were not disclosed.
The alert said scammers…
