By Karyn Chenoweth Nov 3, 2007, 20:12 GMT
Scam alert: New email fraud is being reported using last week's wildfires in California to prey on people with generous hearts.
CNN reports that the IRS calls the scam an "opportunistic attempt to profit at the expense of the victims" of the wildfires.
The Internal Revenue Service is warning Americans about an email hoax that claims to be from the tax agency and asks for donations for wildfire victims.
Anyone who clicks on the donation link is taken to a fake Web site that asks for the person's bank account numbers.
Instead of using the numbers for charity, the scammers can launch a number of identity theft ploys.
"This is very reprehensible," IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw said Friday.
"It's an opportunistic attempt to profit at the expense of the victims of these wildfires as well as the generosity of people who would like to help them."
The scam has "popped up both on the East Coast and on the West Coast, so we imagine that it's a fairly large number of e-mails that went out" she said.
The e-mail uses the IRS logo and Lamishaw called it sophisticated, with few clear signs that it's a hoax. However, the email itself is a clue.
"The IRS as a rule does not even send emails," she said, "so if something appears to come from the IRS it's 99 percent sure that it's a scam."
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