Sussex Taxpayers Warned Against E-mail Scam

Crawley Police (Sussex, UK) have issued a warning for people of an e-mail scam that is currently hitting inboxes of Sussex taxpayers, as reported by thisissussex on July 31, 2009.

According to the news report, people, who have received the fraudulent e-mail, claim that it purports to have come from the Inland Revenue and offers a tax concession.

The e-mail asks the recipients to give their financial and personal details in the form that has come with the e-mail. To download the prescribed form, the e-mail recipients need to click on the link provided in the e-mail. If any of the taxpayers gives his details to hackers, then his bank account is emptied by them.

Darren Taylor, Crawley Police Sergeant, said that this scam was highly sophisticated as a result a large number of people might become its victim, as reported by thisissussex on July 31, 2009.

Taylor further suggests that taxpayers could protect themselves from the scam by calling the Inland Revenue if they receive the scam e-mail.

In addition, e-mail recipients should avoid clicking on the embedded link and refrain from giving away their personal details. Sending a reply to e-mail means facilitating fraudsters to access the details in all possible ways. Hence, security experts have advised internet users falling prey to such scams to change their e-mail address and password.

Taylor also reminds the e-mail recipients that legitimate companies, including government organizations, do not ask the recipient to furnish personal details online. This should be used as a red flag to differentiate between a fake e-mail and legitimate e-mail.

Other signs cited by the Police to identify the scam are that the e-mail is poor in grammar and punctuation. They usually have spelling errors which is not possible in case of legitimate e-mail sent by any government agency.

Furthermore, security experts state that scam e-mail of these types are increasing at a rapid pace and it is important that computer users should be aware of security threats they can face if they send the reply to these types of e-mails.

Related article: Sixem Worm Striking World Cup

» SPAMfighter News - 8/18/2009