Fake IRS Fax Demands Your Bank Account And Passport
Nick has written in to warn us about a fake IRS scam that lately has been targeting nonresident aliens (e.g. teachers and researchers) working in the U.S., as well as American citizens working abroad. In the scam, which has been going on since at least 2002 (pdf), the target receives a faxed request from the IRS to provide his name, SSN, and pretty much every other bit of data you'd need to take over a person's financial identity.
If you have a friend who's working overseas, let her know to watch out for this:
I'd like to tip you about a scam going around Japan right now, and possibly Asia (I live and work in Japan), and maybe other places. It's a fax from being sent to foreigners, and in my case to schools. I've received it once and many of my friends have too.
The form is attached [pdf], claiming to be from "Internal Revenue Service IRS.gov", and prompts the recipient to complete form W-8BEN, which is a tax withholding form. Sure, sounds legit at first, but scroll to the 2nd page (page 1 of the fax) which has a W-8BEN "Substitute Form" that asks for personal info including your bank account number, SSN, and a copy of your passport among other things.
Then it asks the person to fax the form back to +1-206-888-1766 within one week to get a ficticious w-9095. Please inform your readers that this is a scam! I (nor my boss) don't know how this person got the fax numbers, and one of my friends recieved this even though she's from England so perhaps they are trying random numbers.
If you receive one of these faxes, report it to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at ustreas.gov/tigta.
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Comments:
@BusyBusyBusyBusySleep: LOL, I like it! Although it really could be an electronic-fax number (efax.com or similar) that is somewhat untraceable AND just arrives to their e-mail inbox and doesn't use any paper. Awesome suggestion though.
[www.reversephonedetective.com]
Also note that the treasury seal is completely wrong and that the form isn't even close.
Be safe, kids
Interesting - The phone number is in a very small town. +1-206-888-xxxx is in North Bend, which is about 40 miles east of Seattle.
Ooops, Soory, I take that back - 206-888-xxxx is no longer in North Bend. I forgot that the area code was split and that town is now in +1-425. Chalk that up to having a senior moment.
However.. I did more looking and it is in the city of Seattle somewhere.
You can research location of most US telephone numbers as well as carrier information at [www.fonefinder.net]
I have used that website at my place of business for a couple of years now and it is amazing how often it comes in handy.
I would suggest in addition to contacting the Seattle police. They can work with and pull records from the telecom company that carries that number, and can hopefully shut the scammers down before they are able to move on. Local authorities can often move much more quickly than a federal oraganization on things like this.
What's a "Fax"?
Not only Americans who are working overseas got this fax. In fact, it was sent to almost all of the schools in the prefecture where I work, regardless of our nationality.
A guy in my office got a very similar e-mail scam yesterday. He was eligible for a refund check and just needed to click ... and then of course enter bank account #s, etc., for direct deposit.
It was really well done, the headers were excellently disguised, etc.