Consumer Corner

The credit union industry firmly believes that financial literacy is key to living a financially responsible and secure life.

The National Financial Literacy and Education Commission launched a website designed to provide consumer with information about personal finance matters and is administered by the General Cervices Administration's Federal Citizen Information Center.

We believe the the information and resources this website makes available are very valuable and urge you to visit www.MyMoney.gov.

IRS Rebate Scam (01/31/2008)

Even though the Economic Stimulus Package proposed by the House has not been passed, taxpayers are already receiving phone calls from scammers. Taxpayers are being told that if they want to receive the rebate the IRS needs personal information from them including bank account numbers so that the rebate can be directly deposited into their account.

The IRS wants taxpayers to know that they will NEVER contact taxpayers by telephone or email. All contact initiated by the IRS will be via U.S. Mail. If you receive a telephone call or email purporting to be from the IRS do NOT give any information to the caller and do not click on any links or respond to the email. Contact the IRS at a telephone number you know to be valid and report the contact.

It is very important that you make any elderly or other vulnerable people in your family, or that are friends aware of these scams.

08/14/2006

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) is used by more than 6 million taxpayers to pay their federal taxes online.

The new email scam, filled with grammatical errors and typos, looks like a page from IRS.gov and claims to be from the "IRS Antifraud Comission" (sic), a fictitious group. The email claims someone has enrolled the taxpayer's credit card in EFTPS and has tried to pay taxes with it. The email also says there have been fraud attempts involving the taxpayer's bank account. The email claims money was lost and "remaining founds" (sic) are blocked. Recipients are asked to click on a link in the email that will help them recover their funds. The subsequent site asks the taxpayer for personal information that thieves could use to steal the taxpayer's identity.

***IMPORTANT*** "The IRS does not send out unsolicited emails asking for personal information" said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. "Don't be taken in by these criminals."

Additionally, the IRS never asks people for the Personal Identification Numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial institution.

Other scams claim to come from the IRS, tell recipients that they are due a federal tax refund, and direct them to a Web site that appears to be a genuine IRS site. The bogus sites contain forms or interactive Web pages similar to IRS forms or Web pages but which have been modified to request detailed personal and financial information from the email recipients.

If you believe you have received a fraudulent email claiming to be from the IRS, please forward the email to: phising@irs.gov. This mailbox has been developed by the IRS for consumers to report these scams. This mailbox receives so many emails, the IRS is unable to reply to the emails sent by consumers. If you have a tax related question, please contact the IRS at a telephone number or Web address you know to be authentic.