Scammers Imitate Revenue e-mail to Attack Bank Accounts

Sophisticated scammers have successfully recreated the taxman's e-mail address so that they can exploit it to trick people into providing information related to their bank accounts, as reported by The Independent on May 23, 2011.

These fake scam e-mails were identified by the Irish Fraud Bureau during the past few days and were informed to the Revenue Commissioners, which is an Irish Government agency accountable for customs, taxation, excise, and associated matters.

The e-mail was dispatched in the Irish language along with an English translation.

Receivers were notified that, they were eligible to a refund worth €361.43 and to claim the refund they must click on the link provided in the e-mail and furnish the details of their bank accounts.

Commenting on the whole matter, James Treacy, Head of the Irish Fraud Bureau's parent company Business Pro, stated that, the spammer can then exploit the bank details for identify related theft or other types of scam, as reported by The Independent on May 23, 2011.

He further added that, the recent scam is the first identified instance of spammers being competent of imitating a @revenue.ie e-mail address.

Mr Treacy commented that, his group was able to create a same address within few minutes by just following some easy steps.

Security experts further highlighted that, unluckily, it is not only scamming e-mails in Ireland that are frightening people of their identity. As a matter of fact, this scam appears to be global as same scam e-mails have been identified in Ontario, Canada, also.

St Thomas Police (Ontario, Canada) are cautioning the residents regarding an e-mail scam that has been making rounds in the province.

In this spam campaign, a bogus e-mail pretending to be from the Canada Revenue Agency states that, while checking the company tax reports, various irregularities were identified by comparing the actual and revealed profit. The message further reads that, an investigation has been begun to find out if this is an error or a tax avoidance effort. A new modified tax form, with extra columns is attached to the e-mail message.

Commenting on the matter, Const. Cam Constable, stated that, people should not reply to such requests, as reported by Stthomas Times Journal during the second week of May 2011.

He stated that, in case if someone has responded to the e-mail, he/she should immediately contact the local police agency, and the Canada Anti Fraud centre at info@antifraudcentre.ca.

Related article: Scammers Exploit Tax System Resulting in ID Theft

» SPAMfighter News - 5/31/2011