Tax Refund Scam - 4 / 15 / 08

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 15 Apr 2008 Posts: 2

So today I got this email :
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RALINQUIRY04 RAL04 <[email protected]>

Thank you for selecting Santa Barbara Bank & Trust to process your income tax refund. We expect to receive your IRS refund on 04/25/2008. Please log on to our Internet site at https://cisc.sbbtral.com at that time to check on the status of your refund.

You have been assigned the following Client Identification to protect your privacy:
OLR318127004
Please use this ID on all email with our customer service department.

For inquiries, please reply to [email protected] .

Santa Barbara Bank & Trust
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This is clearly a scam, and the website address (at the time) was not even working. So I emailed back this:

-------------------------------
What is the status of my return? You website dont work!!!!!!!

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This was there response:
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RALINQUIRY04 RAL04 <[email protected]>

Please make sure that you are entering the correct primary social security number, without dashes, your full federal refund amount before fees are deducted and your correct filing status. If you do not know what your refund amount or filing status is please review your tax return.

Thank you,
Nicole
SBBT Online Customer Service

*********************************************************
This e-mail is intended only for the use of the individual or entity
to which it is addressed and may contain information which is
privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable
law. If you are not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent
of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error
please notify us immediately by replying to [email protected].
**********************************************************

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This time the website did work, and it was nicely put together for being a BS website. Anyways I responded with this:
----------------------------------

You website not work correctly, I put my infermation in but, its not giving me correct stuff. Please help.
----------------------------------

RALINQUIRY04 RAL04 <[email protected]>

Please call us toll free at 1-877-908-7228 so that a customer service representative can personally respond to your inquiry. Be prepared to provide your social security number, refund amount, and filing status.

Thank you,
Luis
SBBT Online Customer Service Representative

----------------------------------

I figured I would post this here and let you guys take it from here. Call the number, email them, I don't care just make them pay for being the a-holes of humanity. And please post your results here. Thanks, and have fun! Razz

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Nov 2006 Posts: 199

cisc.sbbtral.com is a legit site as far as I can tell. If it is not legit it's the best fake i have ever seen.

I suspect that cisc.sbbtral.com is not where you went. I suspect you were phished and when you thought you clicked on cisc.sbbtral.com you went somewhere else. Check the address in your web browser when you click on the link in your email.. I bet is is not cisc.sbbtral.com

Master Baiter Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 114

This is not a scam but I think the OP needs to check a few things. SBBT are a legitimate Bank and partner with genuine tax software companies to provide RALs (Refund Anticipation Loans). Frankly, it is very late in the tax season for these so it is a little odd.

The fact that you got this email and didn't apply for a RAL is strange. I would check with your tax preparer if I were you, most likely it is his screw up (if you PM me your DCN and I can look into it further if you like).

Oh and remove that reference number from your post because it really is yours.

EDIT to add: The customers service phone number and email are also legit, please do not bait.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:27 pm

The site in the post is legit. The number and contact info on that site are legit.

The site listed is not where the OP went. It is a phishing email. This is what they did...

http://www.google.com

^^ See? It says google but you went to yahoo. That's what phishers do.

Master Baiter Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 114

You're probably right but I would still advise the OP to give his tax preparer a call, just to be on the safe side.

The reason I'm saying this is that phishing like this would work well in Jan or Feb but no-one applies for a RAL at this time of year and it seems odd given that everything else is so professional.

Tax preparers, however are frazzled right now and the chances of them making a mistake are pretty high.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

@ Calibanschaos,

Quote:

Thank you for selecting Santa Barbara Bank & Trust to process your income tax refund.

That suggests that you received another email before the Thank you for selecting one you posted at the top of this topic? Like this one I found on another site, where they say this before the email:

Quote:

The 2nd link of the email is where the scam lies. DO NOT Enter you SS#

?:

The other tax refund email:

Quote:

-----Original Message-----
From: Santa Barbara Bank & Trust RAL Department [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 3:16 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Tax Refund Account Status (RBFN)

Great news! Santa Barbara Bank and Trust has received your refund from the IRS and your TurboTax Refund Bonus order is on its way. The portion of your refund designated for Gift Cards has been forwarded to the Gift Card Fulfillment Center and the balance has been deposited in your designated bank account. It may take two business days for this deposit to post.

The Gift Card Fulfillment Center is processing your Gift Cards right now.
This usually takes up to ten business days. TurboTax will send you a
shipping confirmation e-mail to let you know they're on the way. Your Gift
Card order will be shipped via FedEx Two-Day delivery and a signature is
required.

You can check the status of your Refund Bonus order using order number
DYR690XYV5C004 via the TurboTax Refund Bonus Help Page at
https://support.turbotax.com/go/ttrb

Thanks for your participation.

For more information concerning your refund, please log on to our Internet
site at http://cisc.sbbtral.com .

You have been assigned the following Client Identification to help protect
your privacy: OLR288447814 Please use this ID on all email with our
customer service department.

For inquiries, please reply to [email protected] .

Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, a division of Pacific Capital Bank, N.A.

You can see part of the support.turbotax.com/go/ttrb.html url in the spam post on this page:

Long Google Cached Link!

Quote:

Code:

Very cheap drugs :
[url=http://hometown.aol.com/IanPhelps57/support.turbotax.com
/go/ttrb.html]support.turbotax.com/go/ttrb[/url]

So the url was a fake that lead to a different site.

Trophy Videos · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:39 pm

@calibanschaos - If you actually clicked on a spoofed URL, I would also run an antivirus scan, Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy scan, and find a free rootkit scanner and run that too. It's a possibility that a fake site could have dropped a virus, rootkit, or trojan horse on your system. I'd do it just to be on the safe side. Cool

Welcome to Eater! Very Happy

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:21 am

The key to the fact that it is a scam is that the IRS is not issuing the refunds until May 2nd. They are a week ahead. If you follow their instructions it gives the scammer enough time to redirect your money. I would be reporting it to the IRS.

Master Baiter Joined: 11 Nov 2006 Posts: 199

^^^^ Refunds are issued all the time.... THe rebates are not being issued till after May something.

Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:26 am

I have received the same E-mail from SBBT. And, they are definitely NOT processing my tax refund. I did, however, use TurboTax, filed electronically, and opted for direct-deposit into my own bank. Filing electronically required entering my E-mail address into Turbotax. Has anyone else done this, also receiving the phishing scam message?

thx

Scott

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 2

Yes, I just e-filed my taxes using Turbo Tax and received the same email from SBBT immediately after my confirmation email from Turbo Tax that my file was accepted by the IRS. I didn't apply for an RAL. Apparently, the email sender somehow got email addresses and the fact that someone just filed income taxes through Turbo Tax. I want to find out if Turbo Tax sells clients' information to them. I won't use Turbo Tax again if that is the case.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 01 May 2008 Posts: 2

After some googling I found that unbeknown to me since I chose to have e-filing fees taken directly from my refund I was charged an additional $30 for SBBT to process my refunds and hold on to my money for a week after the IRS refund my money so they can offer the RAL loan. How ridiculous!!! Always thought I was an informed consumer until I was tricked by this. I used Turbo Tax last year without this problem. Although some people say Turbo Tax is not the culprit, I disagree whole heartedly. They should have the moral decency to disclose this information to their consumers. Apparently, they tricked enough people based on the number of postings on the internet. I will not use Turbo Tax again. Will see when I will get my hard-earned money back.

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 11:55 am

I used taxact.. no suprizes no address selling this is the 2nd year I used it

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:40 am

SlapHappy wrote:

@calibanschaos - If you actually clicked on a spoofed URL, I would also run an antivirus scan, Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy scan, and find a free rootkit scanner and run that too.

I'd go even further.
Back up your files and reformat.

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:12 am

Oh Slightly, you necromancer you Laughing

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:31 am

It was necro'd by a forum spammer I reported earlier. I'll delete this posting later today. You both may want to follow suit.

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 9:44 am

Bastard!!!

It looks like I necroed it.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

Rather than split this off with a reference back to the necro'd thread, I'll just lock it so that everyone can look upon Slightly's <strike>mistake</strike> gross violation of Eater's Rules with <strike>glee</strike> horror and shame.

Slightlyoutofit wrote:

It looks like I necroed it.

I'd say it more than "looks" that way... Wink

Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:09 pm

Now who would have done that???

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