Be On The Look Out For Tax Related Phishing

Scammers using very good phishing techniques are targeting people in both the US and the UK.

US IRS phishing emails redirect their victims to sites hosted in Russia and other former Soviet States and they mimic the actual Internal Revenue Service web site almost perfectly. As soon as you've entered your personal and financial information you get redirected to the actual IRS site. Fiendish! Message Labs reports that this type of spam spiked in January, hitting ten times the normal level.

The IRS has pointed out that "The IRS does not send unsolicited e-mail about tax account matters to individual, business, tax-exempt or other taxpayers." If you're wondering how your refund is doing, go directly to www.irs.gov and check the "Where's My Refund?" page. Don't click any links in email that claims to come from the IRS--it doesn't!

According to McAfee, UK phishers are pulling off a similar scam.

Currently an email is being sent out that claims that recipients can get an attractive tax refund from the Government by visiting what turns out to be a bogus website.

"After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of £215 ($420)," says the email. Clicking the links send you off to a bogus site, which is intended to steal person information for identity theft.