CHICAGO - Taxpayers are being warned by the Internal Revenue Service to watch out for fraudulent e-mails.

The e-mails direct individuals to a Web link that asks for personal and financial information such as Social Security, bank account or credit card numbers, known as "phishing."

"The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for detailed personal or financial information," said Sue Hales, IRS spokeswoman for Illinois.

Last year, the IRS established an electronic mail box, phishing@irs.gov, to receive copies of possibly fraudulent e-mails involving misuse of the IRS name, logo or Web site for investigation. The IRS received more than 17,700 e-mails from taxpayers reporting more than 240 separate phishing scams. Recipients of the phony e-mails are asked to click on links to take them to a site that claims to be the "IRS" Web site. The links appear authentic and connect recipients to sites that resemble the genuine IRS Web site. The sites prompt the person for personal identifiers, such as credit card numbers, PIN numbers or similar financial information. The phony sites appear legitimate because most of the images and content are copied from pages on the genuine IRS Web site before being modified by scammers to include their own questions.

Recipients of questionable e-mails should not open any attachments or click on any links. Instead, they should forward the e-mails to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov (the instructions can be found on the IRS Web site at www.irs.gov by entering the term "phishing" in the search box) or notify TIGTA through their toll-free hotline at 1-800-366-4484. The IRS and TIGTA work with the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), various Internet service providers, and international CERT teams to have the phishing sites taken offline as soon as they are reported.

The only genuine IRS Web site is www.irs.gov.