A Pilgrim’s Digression

This was a new one to me, and I feel like I ought to tell folks about it because it almost fooled me. I received an email today purporting to be from the IRS. It was not flagged as spam. The email address was given as do-not-reply@irs.gov. It used a realistic IRS header graphic, and for all intents and purposes looked real.

Here’s what it said:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $109.30. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here [link removed]

Regards, Internal Revenue Service

After suppressing my first impulse to cheer that I was actually getting money back, I began to be suspicious. It seems a bit late in the year to get something from the IRS. But the amount was so small–$109.30–that it sounded legitimate.

I moused over the link, and it appeared as simply an IP address with a long string of special characters. I read the email carefully. Then I saw it: the name masking the email address was spelled incorrectly. How did these brilliant spammers, who otherwise probably would have got me to click the link, spell the name of the agency?

Internal Revenuse Service.

Turns out this one has been caught by Snopes, too.