Survey request from Abt SRBI on behalf of the IRS?

[John Feldt ERPA CPC QPA]

A client of ours received a request to do a telephone survey with Abt SRBI on behalf of the IRS. Their plan had been audited and closed last year (no issues).

I have not heard about any outsourcing of survey work by the IRS to other firms - does this seem legitimate?

[Kevin C]

I've received several written survey requests on behalf of the IRS over the years. Usually they are about a Form 5310 filing. The last two were in 2009 from Macro International/ScanTron. They may have changed contractors and gone paperless.

There are some phishing scams going around that claim to be from the IRS. If you have doubts, you can try contacting the IRS to see if it is legitimate.

IRS article on scams by e-mail, mail, phone or fax.

http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html