Help stop tax phishers

Call it the IRS version of Crime Stoppers. You know, the program in almost every community where law enforcement solicits the public's help in nabbing bad guys.

Now the federal tax collector wants to hear from people who've received fake IRS e-mails purporting to send you a refund in exchange for a little bit of your personal financial information. I got one just this last weekend. If you've been lucky enough to avoid this garbage, you can see what it looks like here.

The IRS has set up [email protected], a special e-mail box, and wants recipients of these bogus refund offers to forward the suspicious e-mails to that address.

By getting a look at these actual communications, complete with Internet headers, the agency's technical and criminal personnel hope to be able to track down, and take down, the senders.

If you're not sure how to forward the e-mail, the IRS has instructions for various mail systems here.

The agency also notes that you can report misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration toll-free at 1-800-366-4484.

And you might also want to forward any suspicious e-mails to the Federal Trade Commission at [email protected] or contact that office online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or by phone at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338).

Just be sure that as you're passing the e-mail along, don't inadvertently open any links or attachments since they likely contain malicious code that will infect your computer.

And while the IRS isn't offering any monetary rewards like local tip hotlines usually provide, when the feds finally do catch up to these despicable con artists you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you helped give these creeps exactly what they deserve.