10/2/2007:

The Department of Energy is aware of suspicious activity, involving a phishing email scam, targeting the general public. The email erroneously claims to be from the Department of Energy forging the email address <refund@energy.gov>. This email account does not exist.  The scam attempts to entice victims by claiming they are eligible to receive a refund. The email instructs the victim to click a link which could infect a computer or provide an opportunity for someone to collect any information that is entered onto the form. The Department of Energy does not collect revenue from, or issue refunds to, the general public via email.

The latest scam email may appear similar to the following:

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From: Deparment Of Energy
Subject: Urgent Notification!

After the last annual calculations of your bills we have determined that you are eligible to receive a refund of $480.58.  Please submit the refund request and allow us 2-3 business days in order to process it.

To access the form for your refund, please click here <link deleted>

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time.
Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

© Copyright 2007, U.S. Department of Energy All rights reserved.”

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The Department of Energy encourages the public to practice safe computing by avoiding opening  attachments and links found in unsolicited emails.