College students and staff who use email addresses ending in “.edu” are the target of a new “phishing” scam aimed at accessing personal information. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has received complaints about the email scam from both public and private colleges and universities.

The suspicious emails display the IRS logo and use various subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculation of your tax refund payment.” It asks people to click a link and submit a form to claim their tax refund. The fake website asks taxpayers to provide their:

• Social Security number
• First Name
• Last Name
• Date of Birth
• Prior Year Annual Gross Income (AGI)
• Driver’s License Number
• Current Address
• City
• State/U.S. Territory
• ZIP Code/Postal Code
• Electronic Filing PIN

Students, faculty and staff who receive this scam email should not click on the link in the email, but instead should report it to the IRS. For security reasons, save the email using “save as” and then send that attachment to phishing@irs.gov or forward the email as an attachment to phishing@irs.gov.  

The IRS reminds taxpayers who believe they have a pending refund that they can easily check on its status at Where’s My Refund? on IRS.gov. If you feel you have fallen victim to a phishing tax scam, or have questions about tax return security, please contact Gray, Gray & Gray at (781) 407-0300.