Scam patrol: Watch for these
Mid-valley residents are advised to look out and not fall for new scams involving phony refund offers from the IRS and calls about classified ads in the paper.
A newspaper in Nevada reported that callers pretending to be from the paper there had telephoned advertisers in the classified ads asking for credit card numbers — under some pretext such as that it was needed to continue running the ad or that the previous number had been rejected — in an apparent attempt to use the information to make fraudulent purchases.
“We have not run into this yet, but it is probably only a matter of time,” said Cyndi Sprinkel-Hart in the classified ad department of the Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times.
“We just want our advertisers to be alerted that if they do receive a call like this, they should ask for the caller’s name and say they will call them back at the newspaper.”
One of the other current scams involves phony e-mails purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service, saying people have a refund coming and inviting them to click on a link in order to claim it.
In a new wrinkle, the IRS said on its website, the current version of the refund scam includes two paragraphs that appear to be directed toward tax-exempt organizations that distribute funds to other organizations or individuals. The e-mail contains the name and supposed signature of the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations business division.
“This e-mail is a phony. The IRS does not send unsolicited e-mail about tax account matters to individual, business, tax-exempt or other taxpayers,” the agency said.
It explained that filing a tax return is the only way to apply for a tax refund; there is no separate application form
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/05/03/news/local/2aaa02_scam.txt
Mid-valley residents are advised to look out and not fall for new scams involving phony refund offers from the IRS and calls about classified ads in the paper.
A newspaper in Nevada reported that callers pretending to be from the paper there had telephoned advertisers in the classified ads asking for credit card numbers — under some pretext such as that it was needed to continue running the ad or that the previous number had been rejected — in an apparent attempt to use the information to make fraudulent purchases.
“We have not run into this yet, but it is probably only a matter of time,” said Cyndi Sprinkel-Hart in the classified ad department of the Democrat-Herald and Corvallis Gazette-Times.
“We just want our advertisers to be alerted that if they do receive a call like this, they should ask for the caller’s name and say they will call them back at the newspaper.”
One of the other current scams involves phony e-mails purporting to come from the Internal Revenue Service, saying people have a refund coming and inviting them to click on a link in order to claim it.
In a new wrinkle, the IRS said on its website, the current version of the refund scam includes two paragraphs that appear to be directed toward tax-exempt organizations that distribute funds to other organizations or individuals. The e-mail contains the name and supposed signature of the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations business division.
“This e-mail is a phony. The IRS does not send unsolicited e-mail about tax account matters to individual, business, tax-exempt or other taxpayers,” the agency said.
It explained that filing a tax return is the only way to apply for a tax refund; there is no separate application form
http://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/05/03/news/local/2aaa02_scam.txt