When it comes to fraud, nothing is off limits, especially on the Internet. With the 2010 Census swinging into high gear and tax season already well underway, expect to see fraudulent “census” and “tax” e-mail and text messages in the near future.
For starters, the Internal Revenue Service never conducts business via e-mail, text messaging or the telephone. For the most part, this is also true about the U.S. Census Bureau although the Census has (unfortunately) started conducting household and business surveys via the telephone and, in limited cases, through the Internet.
Anyone claiming to represent the IRS via e-mail, text messaging or a phone call is lying. If you receive such messages, delete them right away. And, if you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Census and you are asked to give your Social Security Number, passwords or bank account numbers, hang up and try to block the caller’s phone number (and, by the way, there is only one official U.S. Census Bureau Web site and it is 2010.census.gov.)
The Census Bureau will never ask for financial information, question you about your debt or credit or ask you for money. The IRS will never do this via e-mail, text messaging or the phone.
If you believe you have been contacted as part of bogus or fraudulent activity falsely representing the Census Bureau or the IRS, do the following:
Do not let the person into your home and call your regional office right away to verify you are in a survey (phone numbers are listed below.)
If you receive an e-mail and you think it is bogus, do not reply or click on any links within the e-mail. Do not open any attachments (since attachments may contain code that could infect your computer). If the fraudulent e-mail claims to be sent from the U.S. Census Bureau, forward the note to the Census Bureau’s fraud department, ITSO.Fraud.Reporting@census.gov. After you forward the e-mail to the U.S. Census Bureau fraud department, delete the message. You will not receive a confirmation e-mail after forwarding the information; however, the Census Bureau will investigate the information and notify you of its findings. If the fraudulent e-mail claims to be sent from the IRS, forward the note to the IRS’ fraud department, Phishing@irs.gov.
If you feel you’ve been victimized in a fraud scheme that involves U.S. mail, submit a Mail Fraud Complaint Form to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service Web site is PostalInspectors.uspis.gov.
Unfortunately, law enforcement cannot stop fraudulent e-mails from being sent nor can they prevent phony phone calls to you. So it is imperative that you be skeptical when you get a call or an e-mail that claims to be from the IRS or the Census. When in doubt, call these numbers below (do not call the phone numbers that are listed in the e-mail as the phone numbers are probably fake too.) – The U.S. Census Bureau Regional Office for New Mexico is located in Denver. Its phone number is (800) 852-6159. – To report IRS-related fraud, you must call the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Its number is (800) 366-4484. – And to report U.S. Postal Service-related fraud, you can call (877) 876-2455.
If you have questions about computer security or have ideas for future topics, please feel free to contact me at mcarr@unm.edu.
Mike Carr is the UNM Director of IT Security & Quality Assurance.
