Researchers have detected a phishing scam amid this tax season stealing personal data and credit-card details under the guise of offering tax refunds. This well-crafted SMS phishing attack is basically a text message-based tax scam spreading across the U.K., in a probable harbinger of things to come as the U.S. tax season gets underway in earnest.
U.K citizens are receiving text messages claiming to be from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the country’s IRS-equivalent. The messages tell the victims that they have received a refund for overpayment in year 2019/2020 and are asked to click a link to proceed. The link leads to is a set of well-designed phishing pages designed to harvest personal data including bank-account details, credit-card number, expiration and CVV.
In recent time, these type of ‘smishing’ (SMS-based phishing) attacks have been becoming extremely popular. So it is always better to cross check the actual links with the link shred via SMS. Security experts also advice use common sense and never provide credit-card details without there being a good reason for it.
Link: https://threatpost.com/believable-tax-scam-mobile-users/163951/
