Most people are aware that unsolicited emails from banks, building societies and online payment systems are best ignored, or at least verified with the sender before being opened. For citizens of the United States of America, there is a new one to add to the list: the US government. A new phishing email that claims to contain important information regarding tax credits and unauthorised use of social security numbers has been received by thousands of people in the country over the last few weeks. The subject line of the email reads, ‘Get Protected’, making it easy to spot for those who are forewarned. For people who have already opened these mails, a full virus scan is recommended.
If you should receive an email that looks like it comes from a government office and you are not sure if it is genuine, there are a couple of ways that you can check. Firstly, if the message in question contains a link and you open the mail on your PC, hover your cursor over the link and look at the URL that appears, to see whether the link actually goes to where it says. In most instances, it is very easy to spot whether the link goes to a totally unassociated URL and if this is the case, you should not click on it. The safer but slightly more time consuming way is to call the relevant government office and ask if they have sent you an email recently.