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Current Activity - US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns
From: Current Activity <us-cert () us-cert gov>
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 11:14:25 -0500
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 US-CERT Current Activity US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns Original release date: February 8, 2012 at 11:10 am Last revised: February 8, 2012 at 11:10 am 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. Relevant Url(s): <http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-014.html> <http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf> <http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html?portlet=5> ==== This entry is available at http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#us_tax_season_phishing_scams1 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBTzKfWD/GkGVXE7GMAQKPEQf/Q8U+iKgDegdYbiOO9j9qdPZ6CGu0QpVj f217/DGZG/ji20FRB4kl1RrRb+NqMBgZrYrUbTh0zKc6FiaZyY2wIr+PoHv6SYAr t86QF2h86QyjCI5JspIfkPSVenOO5nIytgUpeUc0w6e38JlkRAwfPvkhPLKAqk6c o83t8BYiTh144R4lA7VnPpAOriq2D84bBF8P1qVDWEdQQFK84sDm58tNKnVMBe5K iULHh+G8mXGzqjYm3TkQgBn3YkxJZq10YhnhEeydpJd0BbbNC/SEqD8Bqkg/k6UO fVEdUfHaWKile0EU388/uXVkksbjqTursBhEm9jh92Z0W13df0pv9w== =bzDg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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- Current Activity - US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns Current Activity (Feb 08)