Spam 101: Your Tax Payment ID is failed
I'm going to start featuring popular spam emails on my blog in an effort to educate noobies on how to identify spam. First up is one that is circulating right now with a subject similar to this:
Your Tax Payment ID 38149474 is failed.
The number (in this case, 38149474) is different in each email sent out so if you are lucky enough to receive more than one of these emails, that should be your first clue that the email is not legitimate. In other words, if your inbox looks like the image below, don't give it a second thought. Select all and delete (or report as spam).
The second clue I teach my clients to look for is how scary the email sounds. Generally, the scarier sounding the email, the less likely it is legitimate. In this case, the spammer is trying to scare us into thinking a tax payment of ours did not go through and the IRS will be knocking on our door soon. Here's the actual text of the email:
Your Federal Tax Payment ID: 56327296 has been rejected.
Return Reason Code R21 - The identification number used in the Company Identification Field is not valid.
Please, check the information and refer to Code R21 to get details about
your company payment in transaction contacts section:
[LINK REMOVED]
In other way forward information to your accountant adviser. EFTPS:
The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
PLEASE NOTE: Your tax payment is due regardless of EFTPS online availability.
In case of an emergency, you can always make your tax payment by calling the EFTPS
Oddly enough, this spammer wasn't even smart enough to match the number in the body of the email (56327296) with the number in the subject line (38149474). That's clue #3. Spammers are not the most intelligent people.
Which leads to clue #4, really bad grammar. I would hope that if someone at the IRS ever did need to send an email, they could do better grammatically than "Your Tax Payment ID is failed."
Last, but not least, step back and think when receiving one of these emails. Did you owe money on your taxes this year? And if so, did you make an electronic tax payment? If the answer to either one of these is no, then stop worrying and delete the email.
And if, for some reason, you really think it is legitimate, whatever you do, do NOT click the link in the email. That's why I removed the link in the example above and replaced it with "[LINK REMOVED]". Instead, pick up the phone and make a call. Just don't use any phone number listed in the email. That's just as bad.
Finally, if you are still worried about the chance that the email is legitimate, heed my last piece of advice. Do absolutely nothing. Trust me, if you really owe the IRS money, they will find other ways to contact you besides email.
1 comment for this blog post so far...
November 08, 2011 at 7:40 am
grnwdmom
There’s an AT&T;spam going around that uses the company logo (the globe), but very poor grammar. It asks for details about you, (to “confirm” you are who you are). I reported it to AT&T;--if you look really hard they have a “report abuse” line. They confirmed it was spam.
Add A Comment
Need help leaving a comment?
Just fill out your name, email address (for our eyes only) and web site address (if you have one, this is optional) above. Next, type your comment in the comment box. Feel free to use the Enter key to leave spaces between paragraphs.
The last step before submitting your comment is to enter the CAPTCHA word. This is the funny little series of letters and numbers you see below the comment field that helps prevent comment spam and ensures your comment can be seen on the web site immediately after you submit it.
The last step is to click the "Submit Your Comment" button. Thank you for commenting.