Government Scams: FBI Anti-Terrorist - This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated..."

Fake Government Agencies
FBI Scams - Fake Email from the FBI
Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division
"This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Imposters..."

Have you received an email from the FBI, telling you that

"This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Imposters claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria...";

then  instructing you to "access the form for your tax refund, click here"?

It is a scam.  The FBI will never, never email you unless you first contact them.  They WILL NOT EVER email you to tell you you are under investigation or for any other reason. Count on it.

This is a simple AFF scam - to try to get you to send the scammer money via Western Union.  Notice that their email address is not at the FBI! (@FBI.gov)

Sample Scam FBI Email:

CFR received the following email:

 Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crimes Division.

Federal Bureau Of Investigation.

J. Edgar. Hoover Building Washington D.C Telephone Number : (425)-296-1679

Attn: Beneficiary,

This is to Officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly Investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Imposters claiming to be Prof. Charles C. Soludo of the Central Bank Of Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Mr Frank Nweke, none officials of Oceanic Bank, none officials of Zenith Bank and imposter claiming to be the Federal Bureau Of Investigation. During our Investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfill your Financial Obligation giving to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment.

So therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry Of Finance on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by arranging your payment in total of US$800,000.00 in an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw money in anywhere of the world. You now have the lawful right to claim your fund in the ATM CARD.

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction, all you did have to do is to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free because it is our right to protect the American Citizens. All I did want you to do is proceed and contact the ATM CARD CENTER vian email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $150.00 only and note that your Approval Slip contains details of your PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (PIN) which you will use in activating your ATM CARD in any ATM MACHINE.

CONTACT INFORMATION

NAME: MR. PAUL SMITH

EMAIL: atm-card-centre@live.com

Do contact Mr. Paul Smith of the ATM CARD CENTRE with your full name, home address, mobile telephone number, home telephone number or work telephone number and bank name so your files would be updated after which he will send the payment informations to you which you will use in making payment of $150.00 via Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram for the procurement of your Approval Slip after which the delivery of your ATM CARD will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay.

We order you get back to this office after you open contact with the ATM SWIFT CARD CENTRE and we do await your response so we can move on with our Investigation and make sure your ATM SWIFT CARD gets to you.

Thanks and hope to read from you soon.

FBI Director

Robert Mueller

Note: Do disregard any email you get from any imposter or office claiming to be in possesion of your ATM CARD, you are adviced only to be in contact with Mr. Paul Smith of the ATM CARD CENTRE who is the rightful person you are suppose to deal with in regards your ATM CARD PAYMENT and forward any email you get from imposters to this office so we could act upon and commence investigation.

Review:

The link in the email (http://www.IRS.gov/refunds.php ) actually goes to

According to Who.is, that domain was privately registered at:

Clearly, this email and it's associated website is criminal activity intended to steal your money!

Recommendations:

If you receive a call from this number or any group that claims to represent a government agency, take down their information, including the contact's name, phone number, etc. Do NOT give them any personal or financial information, especially not a credit card, checking or bank account number, passport number, etc.

Next, look up the direct phone or email address for the agency they claim to represent and call them.  Read them the email and ask if it could have come from their agency.

While we don't want to encourage people to ignore correspondence from legal government agencies, it is a safe bet that NO U.S. government agency will make any first contact with you by email. Certainly not the FBI or IRS.

FBI offers this advice:

If you receive an unsolicited e-mail purporting to be from FBI, take the following steps:

• Do not open any attachments to the e-mail, in case they contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Contact FBI at 1-800-829-1040 to determine whether IRS is trying to contact you about a tax refund.

And please let us know about any suspicious calls or emails you receive.  We look for patterns so that we can alert the authorities and victims to new scams, before it is too late!

If you receive a suspicious e-mail that claims to come from FBI,

1. Forward it to IRS (phishing@irs.gov and
2. Send a copy to ConsumerFraudReporting.org (via the feedback form)
3. Please notify the IC3 by filing a complaint at www.ic3.gov and

Follow instructions in the link below for sending the bogus e-mail to ensure that it retains critical elements found in the original e-mail. FBI can use the information, URLs and links in the suspicious e-mails you send to trace the hosting Web site and alert authorities to help shut down the fraudulent sites. Unfortunately, due to the expected volume, FBI will not be able to acknowledge receipt or respond to you.

• Instructions for submitting phishing e-mails to IRS
• IR-2006-49, IRS Establishes e-Mail Box for Taxpayers to Report Phony e-Mails

In the United States, you may also contact:

U.S. Secret Service
Financial Crimes Division
1800 G Street, NW
Room 942
Washington, DC 20223

Frequently Asked Questions - 1.13 IRS Procedures: Reporting Fraud

How to Report Abusive Tax Promotions and/or Promoters:
Complete the referral form  which documents the information necessary to report an abusive tax avoidance scheme. The form can be mailed or faxed to FBI address and fax number on the form.

How to Report Abusive CPAs, Attorneys or Enrolled Agents:
Report suspicious actions by tax professionals to the email address  of FBI Office of Professional Responsibility.

Overseas

Contact the Foreign Commercial Service (FSC) at the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate. If there is no FCS office, contact the American Citizens Services Unit of the Consular Section or the Regional Security Office.

For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.