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ATO Phishing E-mails Aiming at Innocent Taxpayers, Reports ‘Hallmark Accounting’

Accounting firm Hallmark Accounting situated within Ballarat (Victoria, Australia) is alerting netizens for remaining watchful about phishing e-mails asserting they are from ATO (Australian Taxation Office), thus published thecourier.com.au in news dated December 11, 2011.

Reportedly, according to a Hallmark employee Jim Hall, two separate incidences were lately cited in which clients of the firm complained to ATO in connection with different phishing scams, published thecourier.com.au.

Exhibiting the ATO's authorized logo, one e-mail from the two told the recipient that the Tax Office was unhappy to inform that he had been erroneous in one part whilst filing his latest tax returns. It was therefore requested that he rectify the error followed with dispatching the corrected version of the file return to the agency handling his tax payments at the earliest, the e-mail added. Moreover, he was requested to click one given web-link, the e-mail ended, according to Hall.

Hall further indicated that the other phishing message talked about the recipient's eligibility for a tax re-imbursement of $200 that would be dispatched at his address once he provided his banking information.

As a result, according to police officials, people must look out for unsolicited e-mails asserting as messages from the Australian Taxation Office. Fake electronic mails along with similar websites can appear extremely persuasive, but, they're frequently poorly constructed as well as have grammatical and spelling errors that clearly ascertain that they're scam e-mails.

Furthermore, the officials say that taxpayers must keep in mind that the ATO alternatively a legal institution of finance such as a bank won't ever dispatch e-mails directing recipients for furnishing sensitive, personal financial information similar to that in the Hallmark incident.

Meanwhile, suggesting an additional safeguard, the officials state that taxpayers should directly enter the URL names into their web-browsers rather than follow web-links within e-mails.

Conclusively, it isn't new to have tax-related phishing electronic mails targeting Australian taxpayers. For, during June 2011, several taxpayers reported getting phishing e-mails that posed as messages from ATO while telling them they were entitled for getting a tax reimbursement, thereby directing them for applying for it by clicking certain web-link.

Related article: AT&T Website Faces Hackers’ Axe

» SPAMfighter News - 12/19/2011

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