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ATO Spam

Tue, 23/06/2009 - 02:14 — James Purser

The level of banking spam has been going through the roof lately and I've recieved everything from St George, to the NAB, Westpac and even the CUA. However given that it's nearing tax time, the ATO is being given a run at the moment.

This morning I recieved an email with the following text:

You have get a Tax Refund on your Visa or MasterCard.
Complete the formular, and get your Tax Refund.

(Your Refund Amount Is 250.50 AUD)

Complete Formular

Classy work isn't it.

So out of curiosity I clicked on "Complete Formular" to see how professional the crackers had made the site look. It was meh. They'd obviously done a screen shot of the ATO site and then overlaid some sort of imagemap. There was a link you had to follow to "claim your refund" so I thought I'd follow that and see what sort of information they were asking for. Here it is in all it's glory.

I'm sorry, but anyone who falls for this is asking for it. The ATO is never, ever going to ask for your ATM PIN. Ever. I can see them asking for Credit Card details, but only in relation to paying of taxes, not giving of refunds.

Sigh.

Comments

Tue, 23/06/2009 - 03:45 — Scott Evans (not verified)

ATO Spam (fraud!)

Also as far as I'm aware the ATO do not pay refunds to credit cards! So that be another FAIL on their attempt!

Tue, 23/06/2009 - 06:19 — Paul Shirren (not verified)

ATO emails

I have received legitimate emails from the ATO. Sadly not offering me money.

I was kind of annoyed that they do not sign their emails so I know they are genuine. PGP isn't difficult to use.

They use all that horrible java PKI stuff on their business portal so I am guessing they know something about the technology.