Don’t Serve Spam for Thanksgiving (and Don’t Open Spam from a Fake IRS)

I receive many fake IRS email messages, but today’s variant was clever. It appears to be arriving from the Internal Revenue Service, with a plausible return address of:

customersupport@mail.irs.gov.

The subject line sounds tax-techy:

“the CP2000 notice (Underreported Income Notice)”

And if the reader finds the bait plausible and opens the message, the body text is brief and technical, leading quickly to the hook (the link):

Taxpayer ID: ahern-00000375535103US
Tax Type: INCOME TAX
Issue: Unreported/Underreported Income (Fraud Application)

Please review your tax statement on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website (click on the link below):

Review tax statement for taxpayer id: Ahern-00000375535103US

Internal Revenue Service

I removed the hyperlink, but you get the idea. If the spam fooled you, you’d click on that link to “review your tax statement”, and potentially ruin your Thanksgiving. Avoid spam and gorge on turkey. Happy Thanksgiving from the Tax Foundation.