You've Got a Refund Coming

You open your email inbox and find an email from the IRS saying that you have a refund due. Wow! How great is this? So you click on the link to get more information. You're asked to give information, say a credit card and bank information to prove your identity. Maybe even your Social Security number. You gleefully supply the information and sit back to wait your refund.

Guess what? You've been phished.

Phishing (pronounced "fishing") is when you receive an email requesting certain information such as credit card numbers, bank account number, Social Security number, address, birth date, and so on.

DO NOT GIVE THIS INFORMATION OUT!

Not even to the IRS! Because it ain't the IRS asking for it. It's a low-down, greedy, lying, cheating, stealing, thief looking to get either your money or your identity or both. And believe me, I have stronger words to describe these scammers, but this is a cuss-free zone and if I used the language I want to use, I'd have to ban myself.

CNN did a story on this today. I saw the story and realized I just had to warn my readers. I know that you are much too smart to fall for such a scam, but I worry about my other reader. You know, the one who is so very sweet and nice, but a little . . . uh . . . naive.

So, if you get an email, from the IRS, a bank, credit card company, a business, asking for personal information, or asking you to click on a link to another page where you are asked for information, please, unless you initiated the email, don't click on that link.

On your tool bar, go to the address box and type in the link (do not copy and paste) and go to the site yourself. If the email is for real, there will be a contact link and you can go there and ask if the email is for real. If it is, you're out only a little bit of time. If it's phishing, then youre only out time and not money or your identity. You can also notify the company that they are being used in a phishing scam. I promise they will not like this and will be happy for your report.

Oh, and if you don't know how to type an address in your address box, you shouldn't be clicking on links anyway! You aren't computer literate enough to be left unsupervised. Do not do anything without asking permission.

I'm not being silly and I'm not exaggerating; I'm trying to protect you.