Companies Alerted to Bogus FSA E-Mail Pertaining to Tax Avoidance

FSA (Financial Services Authority) is warning companies that an e-mail scam is informing recipients of the regulator that's planning for punishing them because they evaded tax payment, thus published ifaonline.co.uk dated September 8, 2011.

The scam e-mail, purporting to be from FSA, shows criminal@fsa.gov.uk as the sender's address, while, in trying to look authentic, it depicts an exact telephone number and e-mail id as the regulator's contacts.

Besides, there's the real logo of FSA inside the e-mail.

As per security researchers, the e-mail tells the recipient that his company's name has been put up in criminal complaint on charges that it attempted at evading tax payment. A web-link named http://www.fsa.gov.uk/complaints/showcomplaint.aspx?complaint_id=789376583&xid=i8d30hd083hd83g4 for the FSA site has been provided where he can see the complaint's entire text in a PDF file, the e-mail adds.

But FSA confirmed that the e-mail was fraudulent as also it wasn't the sender of the message. In fact, the regulator didn't dispatch e-mails to companies regarding the above kind of issues as well as didn't even handle incidences of tax evasion, it added which ifaonline.co.uk reported.

Nevertheless, according to FSA, recipients must neither answer the e-mail nor follow any web-link given inside it.

Meanwhile, the researchers stated that fraudsters had grown numerically while posing as representatives of FSA for attacking companies and clients during 2011.

They further stated that the above type of scam was observed during July 2011 too, whilst FSA cautioned companies and clients for remaining watchful of scammers asserting themselves as representatives of the regulator. During then, the scamsters conned, sending e-mails to the public by utilizing current or former staff members' names like Lord Adair Turner the chairman or Hector Sants the chief executive. Further, the crooks as well told victims that an amount of money was due to them which they could get via providing their bank account particulars.

Eventually, FSA stated that it was very common for scams to be extremely persuasive that end-users didn't even realize. It (FSA) recommended victims that they should instantly verify from its Register incase they got such a phony e-mail as well as remain wary of unauthorized operations.

Related article: Companies Should Report Cybercrime

» SPAMfighter News - 9/19/2011