The Computer & Communications Industry Association is warning consumers still preparing their taxes -- leading up to the April 17th deadline -- about deceptive Web sites that masquerade as official government Web sites. Consumers have been left vulnerable, and may be paying for services that they could get for free from the United States government. In this, the last week to file tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, millions of Americans who have yet to file their taxes may be lured by misleading Web sites into needlessly spending money on otherwise free services, or putting their personal information at risk.
Sites like IRS.com, IRS.net, and IRS.org are owned by for-profit companies that make money by offering services that, in many cases, taxpayers could get for free through the IRS's official Web site, IRS.gov.
"These Web sites are deceptive," said CCIA president Ed Black. "The public should avoid Web sites whose name, Web address or look and feel are meant to deceive consumers into believing they might actually be associated with the federal government. Consumers should be wary of trusting such Web sites to help them electronically file their taxes."
The confusion caused among the taxpaying public by Web sites like IRS.com has been a source of ongoing concern for CCIA. A consumer survey commissioned by CCIA found that before viewing any Web site, 47 percent mistakenly believed IRS.com to be the official IRS Web site, and one-third still thought it was official even after viewing it. The great success of e-commerce is built on the ability of consumers to trust the Web sites they use. Such trust is even more important in the case of electronic tax filing, which involves the most sensitive personal financial information consumers have. The confusion caused by these Web sites seriously undermines this trust. CCIA recently announced its support for federal legislation that could ban such Web sites.
CCIA first brought this matter to the attention of the IRS, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department in January, urging action to put an end to the taxpayer confusion caused by such misleading Web sites before the tax-filing season. Consumers need to be warned of the situation, especially now that the filing deadline is upon us.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), in a February letter, asked the same agencies to look into these "deceptive" Web sites. As co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, Rep. Markey also raised concerns about the security of consumers' personal information: "I am concerned that consumers who visit these sites may provide the operators with personally identifiable information and tax return information, enabling the operators to either market or sell this information to others, or to sell and market all manner of products and services to these taxpayers," Markey wrote.
