BEWARE of phony e-mail messages from the IRS, banks, EFTPS or other entities:

A client recently forwarded an e-mail message they received stating that there was a problem with a payroll tax payment they had made and asking them to log on to a website to correct the error.  This message appeared to have come from EFTPS but was, in fact, “SPAM” intended to collect banking and other information from the client in a practice known as phishing.  Had the client logged on to the website link provided in the e-mail they would have been taken to a site which looks very much like the official EFTPS website but which was actually designed to request private information which could lead to identity theft, unauthorized withdrawals from the client’s bank account or worse.  Some people have reported getting computer viruses from these illegal phishing sites.

Last year many people (including our firm) received very real looking e-mail messages, supposedly from IRS, telling us we were due a refund and had we responded, we would have been asked to provide passwords, bank information, etc.  We have also received messages “from” various banks, eBay and PayPal which stated there was some type of problem with our account which we had to log on to correct.

The IRS, banks and other entities you deal with will NOT send you unsolicited e-mails seeking such information.  You should ALWAYS be suspicious and check with our office, or call the entity by phone directly, before responding to any e-mail message or going to a website mentioned in a message (especially if a link is conveniently provided).  We discourage you from even going to a suspicious website out of curiosity as that act alone could have undesirable consequences.

If you receive a suspicious e-mail message please contact us before responding.