‘Tax Kicker Refund’ Scam Tries to Obtain Bank Account Data

In an identity theft scam via a phishing operation in Oregon, scammers posed as employees of the Department of Revenue of the state, who offered their help to taxpayers to collect their income tax "kicker" refund.

The perpetrators reportedly e-mail or call taxpayers and ask for their bank account number, so that the e-mail sender or caller could electronically deposit the refund into the taxpayer's bank account.

The Department of Revenue of the state of Oregon said that only some taxpayers have related receiving official-looking e-mails and phone calls that offered services to put their "kicker" refund into their bank accounts. One of the scam was reported directly to the Department of Justice of Oregon.

Joan Linn, Customer Service Manager, said that the fraudsters lie to the taxpayers saying that they are employed at the Department of Revenue. Then they offer service to put in the kicker refund of the taxpayer into their bank account. For that, the taxpayer just needs to provide his account number. Linn warned people not to do this. KATU reported this on October 16, 2007.

As the season for the kicker refund is coming closer, Oregon officials are alerting state residents not to fall for the scam. Taxpayers would be getting kicker checks of $1.1 Billion by December 15, 2007. It is also expected that the mean refund would be approximately $285.

Internal Revenue Service's Oregon spokesman, Bill Steiner, said that phone and Internet criminals have defrauded unsuspecting taxpayers of millions of dollars all over the nation during the past years. StatesmanJournal reported this on October 17, 2007.

Steiner added that any person with a phone or computer is susceptible to these malicious scams. He reminded that IRS would never ask anyone for personal information, as the institute already has it. And this may also be true for the Oregon Department of Revenue.

In a similar incident, the Australian Tax Office is alerting people to be wary of a hoax e-mail that poses to give an income tax refund from the country's tax office. The scam e-mail displays the official logo of the Tax Office and uses the subject line 'Australia Taxation Office - Notification'.

Related article: “Loopholes did not cause online banking thefts”: ICBC

» SPAMfighter News - 11/3/2007