IRS RELEASED FUNDS

If you’ve seen this headline in the subject of your email, you know it’s a scam. I know there are several readers who have probably gotten the same email so I thought I would just go ahead and mention this.

First of all, the IRS will never contact you through email.

Secondly, the email address on this email uses an ancient service called AOL. Sometimes scammers will use an email address from Hotmail Gmail yahoo or a variety of other sources. Any email from a real government office will have. “gov“ in it but will be a follow up from a phone call most likely.

Thirdly, the IRS isn’t chatty. They wouldn’t start an email that says “Hello how are you?” as this one did.

While this email says, “ I am Mr. Patrick Smith,” I can assure you that the writer is not a Mr. Patrick Smith, has never met a Patrick Smith and probably doesn't have someone living near them named Smith. Most likely they are in a foreign country.

The email goes on to say that he is “one of the coordinators of the IRS office in the United States." They go on to "explain" that "After our investigations into the international banking transactions, there are so many pending transactions, so we have been going through some of our transaction tax fee files and found your file as one of the international banking clients who has not yet received the funds due to some pending transaction process. Therefore, I have decided to contact you directly to assist you."

I probably shouldn't comment on their convoluted sentence there, but I will. Who talks like that? And here's another hint...you probably have never done any international banking, so there's another red flag warning for you!

It continues, "Our office has decided to compensate you with the sum of ($75,000 USD) in your account without further delay, because this Internal Released Funds Deadline Is the end of October.”

Isn't that sweet? Another thing worth noting is that the IRS does not need to clarify that the funds are in USD, (United States Dollar). You and I both know that the IRS deals in dollars and they don’t need to point that out, only a foreign scam artist will make that declaration.

Mr. “Patrick Smith “goes on to say “I look forward to your response. Contact me through my WhatsApp number +1(938) XXX-XXXX or Email PatrickSmithXxxxx@aol.com” for more details on how to contact our corporate bank, Frost Live Capital in Australia, so you can receive these funds as soon as possible.” I probably don’t need to point out for most of you that the IRS is not going to deal with the WhatsApp, nor would they use a bank in Australia.

As much as a deposit of $75,000 would be appreciated, and would look good on the bank balance, it’s nonexistent.

I thought I would share this with you just in case you get an email like this, sort of like this or one that makes you take a double take! Don’t be fooled! Trust me, you have to work a lot harder than this to get money back from the IRS!

Opinion : IRS RELEASED FUNDS

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