“If you get a random e-mail from IRS concerning a tax refund… delete it.

It’s a scam, the Service warns. The e-mail tricks people into opening a link by saying that incorrect information was detected on their tax refund account. The link goes to a fake page where scammers try ot steal your personal information. Just a reminder that IRS DOESN’T RANDOMLY CONTACT TAXPAYERS BY PHONE OR E-MAIL. MOST OFFICIAL AGENCY CORRESPONDENCE IS FIRST INITIATED THROUGH REGULAR SNAIL MAIL.”

[Emphasis mine. Via Kiplinger Tax Letter 4/20/2018]

Part of our ongoing collection of reminders to be very careful about what you click on in e-mail.  If you’re on a desktop machine, hover your mouse over any link in an e-mail and make sure you recognize or understand the address it’ll go to.  If you’re on an iPhone or iPad, tap and hold until a popup shows you where the link would take you (or just don’t go near it on the iOS device if you’re concerned you might tap accidentally rather than tap-and-hold).

And if you don’t recognize the address to which the link will take you, but you are concerned about some issue raised in the e-mail — go to your web browser and type in the service provider’s address by hand — or call them on the phone via a number you got from a statement (or, say, the back of your credit card).