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Abstract
A new tax scam takes advantage of the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) as a way to lure individuals into disclosing their personal information. The EFTPS, which is used by more than six million taxpayers, allows businesses and individuals to pay all their federal taxes online or by phone. The new e-mail scam can be easily spotted by taxpayers as a result of its glaring grammatical errors and typos. It looks like a page from the IRS Web site and claims to be from the IRS Antifraud Commission, a fictitious group. The e-mail claims someone has enrolled the taxpayer's credit card in EFTPS and has tried to pay taxes with it. The e-mail also says there have been fraud attempts involving the taxpayer's bank account. The e-mail claims money was lost and remaining founds are blocked. Recipients are asked to click on a link that will help them recover their funds, but the subsequent site asks for personal information that the thieves could use to steal the taxpayer's identity.