Scammers seize on tax rebates as phishing lure

Fraudsters have wasted no time jumping on news of a tax mix-up in the UK as a hook for scams.

Up to six million people in the UK had paid the wrong amount of tax as a result of HMRC mistakes with employee PAYE codes. Around 4.3 million are due for a refund while 1.4 million face demands* to hand over an average 1,428 each.

GFI Security has already intercepted scam emails informing prospective marks that they ought to apply for a refund by filling in a form on a fraudulent site that poses as an official Treasury site.

"The website asks for a comprehensivechunk of information including full name, address, DOB, phone number and mothers maiden name," explains GFI security researcher Chris Boyd.

A blog post by GFI Security - containing a copy of the scam email and more details on the attempted con - can be found here. The offending website has been pulled offline but the possibility of copycat scams means surfers need to remain vigilant.

The widespread tax refunds represent a rich seam for miscreants to mine. Other possible tricks, judging from past evidence, could include using promises of a tax refund to make it more likely that scam emails with infected attachments will be opened.