PDF - Virus

[Roberts]

Someone I had never heard of wanted to have an estimate on how much I would charge to do their tax return. I gave them a massively ballpark spread outlining that I didn't have the information required.

They emailed me a copy of their basic information via a couple pdf files which I didn't trust. I ran it through several online scanners that found no problems. I started opening in Chrome (which is safer than most other options) and it had a link indicating I needed to open in Adobe software.  I found a website that would test the link - yep. It was a virus attack website.

Be VERY leery people. If they had emailed me on a busy day I might have just ran with it. Their first contact didn't have any attachments and they responded normally.

[SaraEA]

IRS has warned of this two-part scam.  First the inquiry and then the PDF.  I've received several that were one-part:  Just emailed me tax docs, out of the clear blue sky.  Just use your head.  Why would anyone pick YOU out of a universe of hundreds of thousands of tax pros?  No different than the Indian princesses who picked you out of the entire world's population to cash their checks.

Colleague got a text today from the "IRS," demanding payment for an overdue tax bill and threatening arrest.  Same script that the Indian call centers used on the phone.  CI shut them down this fall and it was just a matter of time until other crooks stepped in to fill the void.