ATO Warns of Phishing Threat

By Greg McNevin

October 19, 2007: The Australian Tax Office is warning of a new phishing email currently doing the rounds and masquerading as a refund notification.

The spam email began appearing in inboxes earlier this week and is quite similar to another attempt back in June. The email uses the Tax Office logo and the words ‘Australian Taxation Office – Notification’ or ‘Australian Taxation Office – Please Read This’ or similar in the subject line to dupe users into clicking through to a bogus.

From here, users are encouraged to enter their credit card details and other personal information in the guise of receiving a tax refund.

“With the 31 October deadline for tax returns approaching, people should be particularly wary of any unsolicited emails claiming to be from the Tax Office,” said Acting Tax Commissioner Greg Farr, adding that anyone receiving the email should delete it immediately.

“The Tax Office will never send an email to people asking them to provide personal information or credit card details.”

The ATO is working with authorities to investigate the scam, anyone who has entered their credit card information after visiting the site in the email should contact their credit card provider immediately and report a possible compromise.

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