{"id":960,"date":"2019-04-06T19:33:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T19:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=960"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T17:00:00","slug":"ATO-'Tax-Refund-Notification'-Phishing-Scam-Email","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syyhoaxanalyzer.com\/?p=960","title":{"rendered":"ATO ‘Tax Refund Notification’ Phishing Scam Email"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Phishing<\/a><\/p>\n

According to this email, which purports to be from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), you are ‘qualified for a refund’ and should therefore click a link to submit a tax refund request. The email includes the ATO logo and – at least at first glance – might appear to be a genuine notification.<\/p>\n

However, the email is not from the ATO and the \u00a0claim that you can click a link to apply for a refund is untrue. In fact, the email is a phishing scam designed to steal your personal and financial information.<\/p>\n

If you click the ‘submit a request’ link in the email, you will be taken to a fraudulent webpage that is designed to look like a genuine ATO site. A form on the bogus page asks \u00a0you to supply a large amount of your personal and financial information (see screenshot in example below). If you fill in and submit the form, criminals can collect the information and use it to commit credit card fraud and identity theft. Since \u00a0the \u00a0form also asks for your email address and email password, the criminals can even hijack your email account and send emails posing as you.<\/p>\n

Scammers commonly use fake tax refund notifications as a means of tricking people into supplying their personal information. Versions of the \u00a0scam \u00a0surface \u00a0every year and target taxpayers in a number of countries. This Hoax-Slayer YouTube video discusses such scams in more detail:<\/p>\n