Consumers are busy filling out their tax returns or waiting for that refund check from Uncle Sam so it's only fitting that another scam is making its rounds through cyberspace seeking personal information. BBB was alerted to an e-mail from a consumer who received a phishing attempt from someone impersonating the Internal Revenue Service. The e-mail read something like this...
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From: Internal Revenue Service refundsIRS@department.gov
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Fri, Feb 26, 2010 10:36 pm
Subject: Very Important Note

Dear Applicant:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $2480.23.

Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.

For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

Please submit the form attached to your email in order to complete your tax refund

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time.

Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

Copyright 2010, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.
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Notice the immediate give-aways highlighted in BOLD where the e-mailer specifically states the user's IP Address will be recorded and they should download a form. This is a classic phishing attempt because the "form" will likely contain malware which the scammer will use to either infect the user's computer with viruses or use it as a gateway to steal personal information. If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from the IRS, you can relay that e-mail to a new IRS mailbox, phishing@irs.gov and they can help track down the individuals trying to take advantage of consumers.