Tax scams are on the rise on the web. The latest is the breaking news of a new ETPFS tax payment email scam that is trying to take advantage of individuals filing their taxes by October 15, 2010.

Email scams have been with us for a very long time. The most successful scams tend to be those that seem very credible and involve something people will not question. This makes scams involving emails purportedly from the IRS the perfect hook to snag unsuspecting taxpayers.

More than a few people filed extensions on their tax returns this past April. I was one! The good news was it bought us all more time to file. The bad news is we probably put it out of mind until a few weeks back when we realized the October 15, 2010 deadline was just around the corner. Yikes. 

The filing of your taxes is now mostly done electronically. The ETPFS system is the method for doing this. And here is where the new scam comes in. Some crooks are sending out emails suggesting that your ETPFS transfer has failed. They then offer a phone number or email to contact them. Some send you to another page where you can try to make the payment again. Of course, the money goes to them, not the IRS and you are out of your cash. 

The ETPFS email scam is actually a fairly brilliant one if you think about it. Most people fear the IRS. They don’t question anything they receive from the agency, even if it is in the form of an email. As a result, there are a lot of people falling for this latest scam. Don’t be one! If you have any doubts about whether your payment went through, pick up the phone and call the IRS or just take a look at your bank account to see if the money was withdrawn. 

Don’t be a sucka!