Franchise Tax Board warns of two online scams

Since everyone seems to be itching for their bribe…. er.. economic stimulus check, I figured I would offer this bit of consumer protection.

The California Franchise Tax Board is warning taxpayers of two scams involving the tax board and identity theft. The first scam involves an e-mail “phishing” for taxpayer data. The e-mail masquerades as offering to check the status of your state income tax refund. Scams of this nature attempt to lure people into revealing personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, which may be used to steal that taxpayer’s identify. The second scam involves a phony letter informing the taxpayer his or her tax return may be audited. The letter refers the taxpayer to a fake FTB address in Georgia. Both the e-mail and the letter contain misspellings and grammatical errors.

Taxpayers who receive such a notice should contact FTB at 800.852.5711.

4 thoughts on “Franchise Tax Board warns of two online scams”

  1. I know my opinion will be frowned upon but seriously, anyone who falls for this scam (and any of the others just like it) really does deserve whatever comes to them. How many years of reminders do we need?

    Like

  2. Right there with you, plumwin — these are probably the same folks who are waiting for their $10,000 from Bill Gates after forwarding the spam e-mail.

    Like

  3. Don’t we have elderly readers who need constant reminders of things like (1) you don’t have to pay the mailman (2) the ho ho rack at the 7-11 is not an ATM (3) there is no such person as the “wallet inspector” (4) men in Africa do not need your money to put down a deposit for more money (5) ebay, paypal and amazon do not e-mail you because they “forgot” your payment information (especially if you have never used ebay, paypal or amazon (6) etc

    I will now be polite and not call out any elderly readers. Or writers. Cough Cough

    Like

  4. TS Inc. will protect you from scams like this: Just deposit all your money with TS Inc., and sign over your house, car, etc. We will investigate (VERY lengthy and thorough investigation) everyone you think you want to give money to, before deciding if you should give them money. Only $99 a year- protect yourself, and your loved ones.

    Like

Comments are closed.