New phishing scam targets tax pros.

• Position: IRS news

The IRS alerted tax professionals (www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom / new-phishing-scheme-mimics-software-providers-targets-tax-professionals) to a developing phishing email scam that pretends to be from tax software providers and tries to trick recipients into clicking on a bogus link.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The email scheme requests the recipient to download and install an important software update via a link included in the email. Once recipients click on the embedded link, they are directed to a website prompting them to download a file appearing to be an update of their software package.

The file has a naming convention that uses the actual name of their software followed by an ".exe" extension. Upon completion, tax professionals believe they have downloaded a software update when in fact they have loaded a program designed to track the tax professional's key strokes, which is a common tactic used by cyber thieves to steal login information, passwords and other sensitive data.

The IRS urges all tax preparers to take the following steps:

* Be alert for phishing scams; do not click on links or open...