This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
WARNING - Canadian residents could be next.
IR-2004-75, June 1, 2004
IRS WARNS OF SCHEME TO STEAL IDENTITY AND FINANCIAL DATA
WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service warned today of a fraudulent
scheme targeting non-resident aliens who have income from a United States
source. The scheme uses fictitious IRS correspondence and an altered IRS
form in an attempt to trick the foreign persons into disclosing their
personal and financial data. The information fraudulently obtained is then
used to steal the taxpayer's identity and financial assets.
This scheme has surfaced in South America, Europe and the Caribbean so
far.
"This is an international variation of an old scheme where scam artists
try to get valuable information by pretending to be from the IRS," said
IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. "Taxpayers should be wary of strangers
trying to obtain sensitive personal information, whether it's in person,
over the phone, through the mail or over the Internet."
Generally, identity thieves use someone's personal data to steal his or
her financial accounts, run up charges on the victim's existing credit
cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the
victim's name and even file fraudulent tax returns.
In this particular scam, an altered IRS Form W-8BEN, "Certificate of
Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding," is
sent with correspondence purportedly from the IRS to non-resident aliens
who have invested in U.S. property, such as securities or bonds, and
therefore have U.S.-sourced income. The correspondence claims that the
recipient will be taxed at the maximum rate unless the requested personal
and financial data is entered onto the form and the form is faxed to the
phone number contained in the correspondence.
The correspondence's threat is baseless. In reality, the rate at which a
non-resident alien pays tax to the U.S. depends on the terms of the tax
treaty the U.S. has with the foreign person's country.
There are about 2.5 million non-resident aliens who receive U.S.-sourced
income, based on the number of Forms 1042-S that were issued last year.
The 1042-S is used to report the amount of U.S. income a non-resident
alien earned in that year and the taxes that were withheld.
The phony W-8BEN form asks the recipient for detailed personal and
financial information, such as:
- Date of birth
- Social Security number
- Passport number
- Bank name
- Account number, type and date opened
- E-mail address
- Profession
- Day-time phone number
- How often the recipient visits the U.S.
- Information on the recipient's spouse, children and parents
There is a legitimate IRS Form W-8BEN, which is used to establish the
non-resident alien's foreign status and to determine whether the foreign
person is subject to withholding of taxes. However, the genuine IRS Form
W-8BEN does not ask for any of the personal information above, except, in
some cases, for a Social Security or IRS-generated Taxpayer Identification
Number.
In addition, genuine Forms W-8BEN are sent to the recipients by their
financial institution, not by the IRS. The financial institution - whether
bank, brokerage firm, insurance company or other - acts as the
non-resident alien's withholding agent for any income subject to U.S.
income tax that the foreign person received from a U.S. source. The W-8BEN
is used by the financial institution to establish the appropriate tax
withholding or to determine whether their customers meet the criteria for
remaining exempt from tax reporting requirements.
The real Form W-8BEN can be found on the IRS's Web site at www.irs.gov in
the "Forms and Publications" section.
The IRS has already advised financial institutions to alert their overseas
branches to warn their customers about this scam.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration investigates a wide
variety of offenses, including identity theft related to tax
administration. Non-resident aliens who have received a fraudulent letter
and form should report this to TIGTA by calling the toll-free fraud
referral hotline at 1-800-366-4484, faxing a complaint to 202-927-7018 or
writing to the TIGTA Hotline, P.O. Box 589, Ben Franklin Station,
Washington, D.C. 20044-0589. TIGTAs Web site is located at
www.ustreas.gov/tigta.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for subscribing to IRS Newswire.
If you have a specific concern about your tax account, call IRS CUSTOMER
SERVICE AT 1-800-829-1040.
---
If you know someone who might want to subscribe to this mailing list,
please forward this message to them and they can send a blank e-mail to
mailto:[email protected] in order to
subscribe.
---
This message was distributed automatically from the mailing list
irs-newswire.
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.
To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to
mailto:[email protected]
---
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from another list, please go to
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/index.html and click on 'e-News
Subscriptions'.
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.centa.com/CEN-TAPEDE/centapede/attachments/a20b35cc/attachment.htm
---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
What's Related