Tax season sees increase in phishing emails
The Washington Post is running a nice article about how the current tax season in the US is increasing the number of “relevant” phishing emails everyone will be getting in hopes of scamming us out of our bank account numbers, social security numbers, or anything else a scammer can use to steal our money,credit and/or identity.
“Usually these things peak around the time taxes are due,” said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security and research for the Internet Web security firm Websense. “Basically it’s another timely current event that’s on top of people’s lists and another lure to deceive people into giving away credentials in some way.”
And scammers are capitalizing on the fact that more than half of all tax returns are expected to be filed electronically this year. Consider this recent e-mail claiming to be from the IRS: “You filed your tax return and you’re expecting a refund. You have just one question and you want the answer now. Where’s My Refund? Access this secure Web site to find out . . .”
The Web site looked like the real IRS site. But it wasn’t.