Sophos - Phishers Targeting Tax Payers in Australia

The security experts at Sophos (an antivirus firm), alerts the taxpayers of Australia about a phishing email campaigns, launched by the cybercriminals.

The scam emails contain a heading of "Australian Tax Refund Agency" and the "From" part is falsified to pretend as they are sent from service at ato.gov.com.au.

As per the Sophos researchers, the recipient is told by the phishing email that, it is decided that the he is suitable to get a tax refund of $210.75 AUD, from the ATO (Australian Tax Office). The recipient is asked to open the HTML attachment file, if he wishes to see the details.

Describing the details attached to the phishing email, the Sophos experts revealed that, the HTML attachment includes only an ordinary meta refresh link. When the recipient opens the email, the link instantly (without any more user guideline) directs him to a fake Australian tax Office (ATO) website, which gradually tries to retrieve the recipient's credit card details, as reported by softpedia.com on 27th July, 2010.

It is being claimed by the form that the tax refund would be paid through VISA or Mastercard, and asks for the recipient's credit card information. The details collected by the form contains driving license Number, address, city, state/territory, postcode, phone number, card type, card number, expiration date and CVV/CNV number.

Regarding such phishing email scams, the security researchers warn users that, if ever they receive such phishing mail, they should delete them without opening. However, if somebody has already mentioned their credit card details into the fake ATO site, they should report the case to their respective credit card company, as early as possible. Thus their card will be blocked and the phishers will not be able to make further transactions.

Lastly Sophos adds that, the tax period is a very profitable time for cybercriminals as the continuously make innocent users their victims through phony emails pretending to be from tax companies. Hence, it is advisable that the taxpayers keep extra alert of unwanted emails, appearing to be from the government.

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» SPAMfighter News - 8/6/2010