Taxation Refund Request Confirmation

Taxation Refund Request Confirmation

Another Taxation refund phishing email campaign started this week. The taxation office in this case means the Australian Taxation Office. The email states that you have a tax refund waiting. Now who is not tempted by a tax refund? There is a single html attachment in the email. Open the attachment and fill out the form. Make sure you include your personal details and your bank account details.

After doing this, the tax refund will be yours. Or so the phishing email leads you to believe. The reality is that this is another email scam. It steals your personal information for fraudulent use. Do not open the attachment to the email, and do not fill in the form. Delete the email immediately.

Figure A shows the email. The email sender is “Australian Taxation Office”. The actual email domain is not the Australian Taxation Office domain. The subject line of the email is “Refund Request Confirmation”. No Australian Taxation Office logos are used. The entire email is plain text. There is a single html attachment. The attachment is called “Refund Request Confirmation.html” or similar.

The email informs the recipient that a tax refund can be claimed by downloading the attachment and opening it. The user is instructed to fill out all questions on the form. The user is also told that the refund cannot be processed unless all questions are answered. A Tax refund identifier is supplied at the foot of the email. This is to make the email appear authentic.

This email is a fake. The absence of Australian Taxation Office logos is a big giveaway. The Australian Taxation Office has warned of these types of emails. Their website contains several examples of scam emails. We re-iterate one that is relevant to this email. Do not trust a form that opens on a non-ATO website. This particular form asks for many personal details. Do not click on the link. Delete this email.

Scott Reeves
MailShark
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