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Current Activity - US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns
From: Current Activity <us-cert () us-cert gov>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:38:13 -0400
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 US-CERT Current Activity US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns Original release date: March 16, 2011 at 11:32 am Last revised: March 16, 2011 at 11:32 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 * 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. * Review the Wall Street Journal blog post "Cybercrooks Digging for Tax Data" for additional suggestions for protecting against these types of attacks. Relevant Url(s): <http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/03/11/cybercrooks-digging-for-tax-data/> <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) iQEVAwUBTYDZVT6pPKYJORa3AQIsHwf/WYMHqWNNzi8UTIvv0BYGsjvudcxyfbmE px0pC3wIoL5FKZMfcClbumSVMGtyWwDbaL4+JYSHwG/7l8MtPKzhBFz15fdIhFuU 3QJOqM+OipVS4g4l7AGsOSg3Pry0/+p8ISw3YipPe4o9vjn7Aky7Zl2PSfUhmNOW ONdYwTB7urPWrQLNVio38jKrhkn8uznzUek5PdnY9I8wx6KXiteaF+6qZgzrZE4W sKMi+zfXxVPZ+tzL+JdEqg7uLpNCXL6npAhc29oDbE98BUQ2mNs5+bx0+g4wCXfA 4ehSUZ7yslhUFnr/npslkCj4XUGfmEOleJHEqHjuPHUx3zTZYS2XKA== =gP5N -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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- Current Activity - US Tax Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns Current Activity (Mar 16)