U.S. Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns
In the past, US-CERT has received reports of an increased number of phishing scams and malware campaigns that take advantage of the United States tax season. Due to the upcoming tax deadline, US-CERT reminds users to remain cautious when receiving unsolicited email that could be part of a potential phishing scam or malware campaign.
These phishing scams and malware campaigns may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- information that refers to a tax refund,
- warnings about unreported or under-reported income,
- offers to assist in filing for a refund, and
- details about fake e-file websites.
These messages, which may appear to be from the IRS, may ask users to submit personal information via email or may instruct the user to follow a link to a website that requests personal information or contains malicious code.
US-CERT encourages users and administrators to take the following measures to protect themselves from these types of phishing scams and malware campaigns:
- Do not follow unsolicited web links in email messages.
- Maintain up-to-date antivirus software.
- Refer to the IRS website related to phishing, email, and bogus website scams for scam samples and reporting information.
- Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
- Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.
- Forward suspected phishing emails to [email protected].
