Full Notification

The Palos Heights Police Department has an important message for the community in regards to Tax Time IRS E-Mail Schemes.

The tax deadline is approaching and we wanted to remind our citizens to be aware of IRS (Internal Revenue Service) email schemes. We have been notified by the National White Collar Crime Center that there have been 213 IRS complaints received by the Internet Crime Complaint Center from January 1 to February 3, 2010. The complaints were in regards to "phishing" type e-mail scams and the intent of these e-mails is to make the person who receives these e-mails believe they are conducting business with a trustworthy/legitimate entity, in order to obtain personal/sensitive information. DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE E-MAILS.

Examples of the IRS "phishing" scheme include but are not limited to the "eligible tax refund" scheme, which claims the recipient is eligible for a specified amount for their tax refund, and requests personal information such as Social Security numbers, maiden names, driver's license numbers, financial institution account numbers and associated pins, etc, and typically requests the information be sent back within a specified amount of time. Another example includes the "W-2 email" which notifies recipients there is a new employer W-2 that needs to be filled out to start or continue their taxes.

The IRS does not communicate tax information via e-mail. For more information, please visit the following websites: www.irs.gov or www.ic3.gov