The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued warning of an ongoing IRS-impersonation scam targeting educational institutes, primarily students/staff who have a “.edu” email address. The phishing email appears to target individuals affiliated with education in all formats including public and private, profit and non-profit institutions.
A convincing IRS logo is used in the suspect messages with various subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculation of your tax refund payment” encouraging recipients to follow the link and submit back a fake webform. The form generally requests the recipient provide:
- Social Security number
- First Name
- Last Name
- Date of Birth
- Prior Year Annual Gross Income (AGI)
- Driver's License Number
- Current Address
- City
- State/U.S. Territory
- ZIP Code/Postal Code
- Electronic Filing PIN
One variation of this phish can be viewed at the Recalcuation of your Tax Refund Payment phishing scam
If you believe you have received this phishing email, do not click on any of the links and report it to security@ucla.edu. If you have already provided any information as a result of this fraudulent scam, please also contact the IT Security Office at security@ucla.edu for help re-securing your UCLA accounts.
For more information, please visit the IRS’ site at: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-warns-university-students-and-staff-of-impersonation-email-scam
