'Tis the Season for Tax Return Scams
It's that time of the year again, tax season. With every tax season is the latest in tax return phishes. Below is a sample that started hitting the wires a bit ago, but standard click-and-get-0wned. (This one pointed to a website that was down by the time I found it). In this case, the phish also pointed into residential DSL space. If someone out there can happen to snag the malware this thing tries to get, I copy would be apprciated (I'm assuming they change the link in the email routinely).
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Tax Notification
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
United States Department of the Treasury
Date: 01/28/2008 After the last annual calculations of your fiscal
activity we have determined that you are eligible
to receive a tax refund of $134.80.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us
6-9 days in order to process it.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying
after the deadline.
To access the form for your tax refund, click here (BAD LINK HERE).
Regards,
Internal Revenue Service
Document Reference: (92054568).
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John Bambenek, bambenek /at/ gmail [dot] com
Happy Data Privacy Day
The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) has made today Data Privacy Day. Among other things, they encourage giving either of two presentations in local settings, "Privacy Today" on ways to protect your information and "Teen Privacy Online" that focuses on the use of social networking tools and risks that come with them.
The important note about this effort is that it focuses its attention on the weakest area of privacy protect, the individual themselves. If people do not protect their own information (for instance, by putting their entire lives in their facebook profile) there is little other groups can do to prevent the misuse of that information.
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John Bambenek, bambenek /at/ gmail [dot] com
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