The Panola Watchman (Carthage, Tex.), Vol. 136, No. 10, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 3, 2008 Page: 2 of 32
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Panola Watchman and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Sammy Brown Library.
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rtx»» ttPArrxtxT or rooitoroonnox
Can't make it to a hearing? We still want to hear from you.
Go to KeepTexasMoving.com.
■ .
V ■ ' * *• ■ 3? ’■ i 4*~ « r • >.'<* ' >$-•••
The public hearings are specifically for comments on the 1-69/TTC Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
PUBLIC
1^ HEARING
’ fEBRUARY5
.« Carthage HighSchool Auditorium .1R ,w
■ Open House; 5-6:30pm
Hearing: 6.30 pm
■RS SCAMS
Continued from page one
allows scamsters to act quick-
ly and cover their tracks
before the victim becomes
aware of the theft.
People whose identities
have been stolen can spend
months or years — and their
hard-earned money — clean-
ing up the mess thieves have
made of their reputations and
credit records. In the mean-
time, victims may lose job
opportunities, may be refused
loans, education, housing or
cars, or even get arrested for
crimes they didn't commit.
The most recent scams
brought to IRS attention are
described below.
Rebate Phone Call
At least one scheme using
the word “rebate” as part of
the lure has been identified. In
that scam, consumers receive
a phone call from someone
identifying himself as an IRS
employee. The caller tells the
targeted victim that he is eligi-
ble for a sizable rebate for fil-
ing his taxes early. The caller
then states that he needs the
target’s bank account infor-
mation for the direct deposit
of the rebate. If the target
refuses, he is told that he can-
not receive the rebate. This
phone call is a scam. Those
who opt for direct deposit do
so by completing the appro-
priate section of their tax
return, with bank routing and
account information, when
they file; the IRS does not
gather the information by tele-
phone.
Refund e-Mail
The IRS has seen several
variations of a refund-related
bogus e-mail which falsely
claims to come from the IRS,
tells the recipient that he or
she is eligible for a tax refund
for a specific amount, and
instructs the recipient to click
on a link in the e-mail to
access a refund claim form.
The form asks the recipient to
enter personal information
that the scamsters can then use
to access the e-mail recipi-
ent’s bank or credit card
account.
In a new wrinkle, the cur-
rent version of the refund
scam includes two paragraphs
that appear to be directed
toward tax-exempt organiza-
tions that distribute funds to
There are lots of ways to express yourself. And now’s your chance to talk transportation,
especially about the l-69/Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) project. Beginning February 4, the
Texas Department of Transportation will hold 46 public hearings. The public hearings
will focus on the 1-69/TTC
•• '■ I
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (i.e., the study area where it would go it built)
TxDOT is greatly interested in your thoughts about that document Each evening will
begin with an open house at 5:00 p.m. followed by the official hearing at 6:30 p.m. So
go ahead, don’t hold back. We’ll both be much better for it.
1 IE W. IE HEARS.
109 W. Panola
Carthage, Texas 75633
MARCH 4,2008
of transportation
The Panola Watchman
Sheriff
VOTE
DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS IS FEB 18TH, 2008
other organizations or individ-
uals. The e-mail contains the
name and supposed signature
of the Director of the IRS’s
Exempt Organizations busi-
ness division.
1 his e-mail is a phony. The
IRS does not send unsolicited
e-mail about tax account mat-
ters to individual, business,
tax-exempt or other taxpayers.
Filing a tax return is the
only way to apply for a tax
refund; there is no separate
application form. Taxpayers
who wish to find out if they
are due a refund from their
last annual tax return filing
may use the “Where’s My
Refund?” interactive applica-
tion on the official IRS web-
site. The only official IRS
website is located at
www.irs.gov.
Audit e-Mai)
Another new scam uses a
technique calculated to get
almost anyone’s attention, the
e-mail notifies the recipient
that his or her tax return will
be audited. This is the first
scam of which the IRS is
aware that uses this to get the
victim to respond.
Unusual for a scam e-mail,
it may contain a salutation in
the body addressed to the spe-
cific recipient by name. Most
scam e-mails seen by the IRS
are sent using the same tech-
nique used by spammers, in
which hundreds of thousands
of messages are sent to poten-
tial victims based on Internet
address. Because of the vol-
ume, the typical scam e-mail
is not personalized. This e-
mail instructs the recipient to
click on links to complete
forms with personal and
account information, which
the scammers will use to com-
ELECT
Keith Carver
for
Panola County
Banquet
February 26, 2008
Please Send Nominations to
“Time for a Change”
Paid Pol. Adv. Pd for by Keith Carver 634 CR 327 DeBerry. Tex. 75639
mit identity theft.
Changes to Tax Law e-Mail
This bogus e-mail is
addressed to businesses,
accountants and “Treasury”
managers. It instructs them to
download information on tax
law changes by clicking on a
series of links to publications
on businesses, estate taxes,
excise taxes, exempt organi-
zations and IRAs and other
retirement plans. The IRS
believes that clicking on a link
downloads malware onto the
recipient’s computer.
Malware is malicious code
that can take over the victim’s
computer hard drive, giving
someone remote access to the
computer, or it could look for
passwords and other informa-
tion and send them to the
scamster.
The urls contained in the
link are not legitimate IRS
web addresses. All lRS.gov
web page addresses begin
with http://www.irs.gov/.
Paper Check Phone Call
In a current telephone
scam, a caller claims to be an
IRS employee who is calling
because the IRS sent a check
to the individual being called.
The caller states that because
the check has not been cashed,
the IRS wants to verify the
individual’s bank account
number. The caller may have
a foreign accent.
In reality, the IRS leaves it
entirely up to the individual to
choose to cash or not cash a
paper check. The IRS has no
business need to know, and
does not ask for, bank account
or similar information, except
when taxpayers indicate on
their tax return that they are
opting for the direct electronic
deposit of their refund. In that
case, however, it is the indi-
vidual’s responsibility to pro-
vide the IRS with the correct
bank routing and account
numbers on the tax return; the
IRS does not contact taxpay-
ers to verify the information.
What to Do
Anyone wishing to access
the IRS Web site should initi-
ate contact by typing the
lRS.gov address into their
Internet address window,
rather than clicking on a link
in an e-mail or opening an
attachment.
Those who have received a
questionable e-mail claiming
to come from the IRS may
forward it to a mailbox the
IRS has established to receive
such e-mails,
phishing@irs.gov, using
instructions contained in an
article titled “How to Protect
Yourself from Suspicious E-
Mails or Phishing Schemes.”
Following the instructions
will help the IRS track the
suspicious e-mail to its origins
and shut down the scam. Find
the article by visiting IRS.gov
and entering the words “suspi-
cious e-mails” into the search
box in the upper right comer
of the front page.
Those who have received a
questionable telephone call
that claims to come from the
IRS may also use the phish-
ing@irs.gov mailbox to notify
the IRS of the scam.
The IRS has issued previ-
ous warnings on scams that
use the IRS to lure victims
into believing the scam is
legitimate. More information
on identity theft, phishing and
telephone scams using the
IRS name, logo or spoofed
(copied) Web site is available
on this Web site. Enter the
terms “phishing,” “identity
theft” or “e-mail scams” into
the search box in the upper
right comer of the front page.
Turn In Your
Nomination Now
For
Citizen of the Year
The Most Prestigious Award of the Year
Presented By
Award Presentation Will Be During The
Panola County
Chamber of Commerce
KEEP h
TEXAS
MOVING
For more information about the I 69 TTC public hearings or tolling visit www KeopTexasMoving com
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The Panola Watchman (Carthage, Tex.), Vol. 136, No. 10, Ed. 1 Sunday, February 3, 2008, newspaper, February 3, 2008; Carthage, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1206760/m1/2/?q=technical+manual: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sammy Brown Library.