What is Phishing? Phishing is a fictitious an email, phone, text, or website pop-up that purports to be from a legitimate business. This morning I answered a client’s phone to a robocall, a prerecorded message, telling me that I/we were being sued and to call (518) 375-1857. The caller ID on our phone just said “Albany, NY”. The message did not say who or what business was being sued nor did the robo-call refer to a person’s name or reference number that we were supposed to give once we called the 518 number. It smelled “phishing”! I reported the incident to the IRS’s email as listed on irs.gov. This is their auto-response:
_This is an automatic reply from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Online Fraud Detection and Prevention (OFDP) team._
_We have received your report of possible phishing or fraud. Although we review and investigate each email we receive,_
_due to the number of incident complaints, we cannot guarantee a personal response to your message._
_Please note that the IRS does not contact individuals by email._
_Therefore, if you received an email claiming to be from the IRS it is a phishing attempt and should be reported to us._
_Additional information on IRS phishing can be viewed here:_
_Additional information on avoiding phishing scams can be viewed here:_
_Additionally, please be aware of Telephone Scams. The IRS will always send taxpayers a written notification of_
_any tax due via the U.S. Mail. The IRS never asks for credit, debit or prepaid card information over the telephone._
_Please see:[](https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2015-34.htm “https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2015-34.htm”)_
_https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press\_tigta-2015-34.htm_
_The IRS values your report, and encourages individuals to report future IRS phishing/fraud to phishing@irs.gov_
_so that we can handle these incidents and limit the number of possible victims._
_To limit email volume, you will only receive one auto-response per day for any of your submissions._
_Thank you for your report._
_Regards,_
_Internal Revenue Service (IRS)_
_Online Fraud Detection and Prevention (OFDP)_