Sunny Day, Scam, and Irony

Day before yesterday, I received this email, allegedly from the IRS—who wanted to offer me a refund, no less. I could tell right away it was a scam:

From: message42624@legalrefund.com
Subject: Notice from IRS
Date: June 4, 2009 7:46:28 AM EDT
Reply-To: donoreply@donoreplyplease.org

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $189.60. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to IWP the data received. If u don't receive your refund within 9 business days from the original IRS mailing date shown, you can start a refund trace online.
If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org. is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes. If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing the recipient's name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers, directors, rustees, members, or major contributors.
To access the form for your tax refund, please click here
This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,
a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.

Sincerely Yours,
John Stewart
Director, Exempt. Organization Rulings and Agreements Letter
Internal Revenue Service

Checking the raw source code, I find that this message originated in the UK: Received: from User ([84.45.229.37]) by villagelighting.co.uk with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:46:39 +0100

What made this scam ironic is that the next day we received a snail mail notice from the IRS (the one in Washington DC, not the one in the UK) telling us that we owed them money—despite having paid our taxes in full and on time—because we didn't file a quarterly report of our estimated income. Fortunately the "stimulus check" more than covers what we owe, but still. . . .

Now if I can just figure out the maner of the realtionship to my rustees.

But today the sun shone. All day.

~