Revenue Commissioners of Ireland Cautions Taxpayers about Scam Emails

Siliconrepublic.com reported on 17th December, 2013 stating that Revenue Commissioners of Ireland which is Ireland's government agency responsible for collecting taxes is cautioning taxpayers about fake emails asserting to be from it seeking personal details in order to seek a tax refund.

The phishing emails are entitled 'Claim Your Tax Refund Online' or 'Tax Return For Year 2012', it has been revealed.

The agency (referring to Revenue Commissioners), says that these emails haven't been sent by it, as it never sends electronic mails to customers asking them for their personal details to be sent via email. Any taxpayer who gets such an email impersonating the Revenue Commissioners and thinks that it is bogus or a racket should just delete the unwanted email.

As another alternative, such scam emails mimicking the Revenue Commissioners may also be sent to webmaster@revenue.ie.

It also says that anyone who provided information about credit or debit card in answer to the scam emails needs to get in touch with their bank or credit card firm immediately.

And, any taxpayer waiting for a tax rebate in actuality must make a contact with their neighboring Revenue Office to find its status.

Unfortunately, Revenue Commissioners of Ireland issued a similar warning about scam text messages offering significant tax rebates last month (November 2013).

These scams are the most recent in the directory of phishing assaults in which criminals lift design templates of legitimate websites to trick Internauts into giving their bank or credit card details.

Internet Security of Symantec published a report early this year stating more than 5 billion scam emails are mailed every year with one in every 298 emails looking for details such as passwords or usernames and one in every 239 of those mails affected by viruses.

Finally, tax-themed online scams are common and target taxpayers across the world. In November, 2013, New York's Governor, Andrew Cuomo, cautioned taxpayers of an elaborate email and phone tax swindles committed by scammers claiming to be Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or state tax officials. Taxpayers were threatened with arrest, fines, extradition, and other similar punishments if they did not pay their overdue tax immediately by the crooks.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/31/2013