IRS Audit Scams and Domain Name Renewal Scams
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IRS Audit Scam
As with most Internet scams, this one arrives by email (spam).
Here's how it works: Taxpayers receive a fraudulent email
saying that they are under audit. (The email uses the term
"IRS e-audit" in the subject line.) The taxpayer is instructed
to fill out a questionnaire which supposedly must be completed
within 48 hours to avoid penalties and interest. The taxpayer
is asked for their social security numbers, bank account
numbers and other confidential information.
Very important: The IRS does NOT notify taxpayers about
pending audits via email. Nor do they conduct "e-audits."
And, the IRS certainly does NOT ask for this kind of
confidential, personal information.
In other words, this email is NOT from the IRS.
What to do: Do not provide any of the information requested.
The fraudsters are either attempting to steal your money or
your identity. If you receive this email, notify the IRS
office in your area.
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Domain Name Renewal Scams
This week alone, a few companies that register domain names
have attempted to scam our company about a dozen different
times. They tried to get us to renew domain names with them or
buy new domain names with different extensions (such as
.info). We didn't fall for these scams, but the tactics they
used would clearly work on lots of unsuspecting domain name
owners.
There are three main variants of this scam:
1) Official-looking invoices via snail mail notification.
2) Phone calls.
3) Email notices.
1) Official-looking invoices via snail mail notifications.
We have been receiving official-looking invoice notifications
for many of our domain names from a company that has a very
generic sounding name and has an American flag on their
envelope. We happen to know that this is not the company that
is our primary registrar, so we throw these away.
We did take a look at one of these deceptive letters, though,
and it looks just like a bill. It also implies that if you
don't renew with them, you'll lose your domain name.
What to do: If a notice comes from an unknown company, do not
respond -- just throw it out.
2) Phone calls. This past week we received a call from a
domain registration company that first tried to verify the
contact person for the domain name. Once they confirmed the
contact person, they then wanted to put through one of their
agents who had "some very important update information
regarding our domain name."
When we asked what this was about, the caller said she didn't
know, but that we needed to give her our fax number for some
very important info so we wouldn't lose our domain name.
When we said that we wouldn't give her the fax number and that
we wanted to talk with someone who did know (since she claimed
to just be the receptionist), we were then told by the new
person that we could now get one of our domain names with a
.info extension.
When we said we weren't interested, the caller asked several
times: "Do you understand then that you can lose your domain
name?" His deceptive point was that we could lose the .info
version of the domain name -- but he strongly implied (and
almost said) we would lose our .com domain name. When we asked
for his name and phone number, he hung up.
What to do: Immediately ask for the caller's name, phone
number, company name, and city and state they are calling
from. Most will hang up. If they provide the information, you
can ask them if they currently are your domain registrar (you
can check this out from your prior bills). If they are not,
you most likely do not want to talk with them.
If you choose to hear them out, realize that they are probably
using high-pressure sales tactics -- you will not lose a
domain name by not transferring it to another registrar. The
primary way you lose a domain name is if you don't pay your
renewal bill on time.
3) Email notices. These are the most common domain name
renewal scams. There are many variants of this scam.
Perhaps the worst one is when they include a Web address (URL)
for you to get more information, but in reality, they have
programmed that URL to function the same way as if you went
through the process of agreeing to transfer your domain name.
They then transfer your domain name to their company as
registrar, and claim that you have requested this transfer.
What to do: Be careful. Check your records to find the company
that you registered your domain name with. If another company
solicits you, ignore it. Don't click on the URLs of other
solicitations. Don't pay phony looking invoices.
Note: Your current domain registrar will send you notices when
it's time to renew, and these are most likely legitimate. They
want to make sure you don't lose your domain name.
Remember: be very careful. You don't want to lose your domain
name, and you don't want to transfer it to an unscrupulous
company.
Internet ScamBusters (tm)
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