The office of the Revenue Commissioners has warned the public that fraudulent emails are circulating taxpayers’ inboxes, camouflaged as an email related to tax refunds supposedly sent from the tax collection body. The emails are asking users to provide personal information, the government agency said on its website.
The phishing emails are entitled “Dear Taxpayer,” but the Revenue points out that the emails do not come from the tax administration. The Revenue also said that it never sends emails asking people to send personal information via either emails or pop-up windows.
The government body is advising anyone who receives an email that claims to be sent from the Revenue, and they suspect to be a phishing scam, to delete the message or forward it to the agency. Those who are genuinely expecting a tax refund should contact their local Revenue Office to get information about the status of the refund that may be due.
Those who have already responded to a fraudulent email and provided sensitive personal information need to immediately check with their bank or credit card company.
Revenue Commissioners noted that user email addresses can be found relatively easily from publicly available sources and are probably generated randomly; for this reason, if anyone receives a fraudulent email from the Revenue, this does not mean that the government body has provided their contact details, or that the email or any other personal information was collected from the Revenue’s systems, the agency noted.