{"id":21404,"date":"2018-03-01T10:26:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=21404"},"modified":"2020-02-26T11:12:38","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:12:38","slug":"tax-scam-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tax-scam-2018\/21404\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold on to your wallets \u2014 it’s tax (scam) season again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tax season makes fools of many of us. Between confusion over complex filing rules and a general desire to claim the greatest possible refund, tax season is a cybercriminal\u2019s paradise.<\/p>\n

On the business side, accountants and payroll departments slammed with extra seasonal work are targeted for W2 scams<\/a>. Ordinary people are more likely to encounter scams<\/a> based on the promise of a tantalizing refund or a Nigerian-style twist involving magical refunds to be sent to a \u201ccollection agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, tax-themed phishing<\/a> and malware<\/a> are just seasonal icing on the year-round scam-cake that is modern, online living. Take the usual precautions \u2014 and perhaps be even a bit more wary than usual \u2014 to stay safe this tax season.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Treat all communications with great care. Criminals dip into a varied bag of tricks that include phishing e-mails (usually looking like official communications from the IRS or other national tax organization), phishing phone calls, and fraudulent downloads posing as app updates.<\/li>\n
  2. Complete your tax returns early. We\u2019re not being preachy, here \u2014 if you\u2019re not rushing to get your tax return in on time, you\u2019ll have time to consider carefully any e-mails, phone calls, or software updates that come your way.<\/li>\n
  3. Rely only on sources you trust for refund information. Reliable sources include a known tax professional and government agencies. If in doubt, double-check over the phone or in person \u2014 and use publicly available contact information, not a phone number or e-mail address from the communication you\u2019re trying to verify.<\/li>\n
  4. Ensure all transactions take place over a secure connection such as a VPN<\/a>. If using a mobile app to file, be sure it, and any updates, are legit.<\/li>\n
  5. Treat e-mail messages with care, and don\u2019t click on suspicious or unexpected attachments or links.<\/li>\n
  6. Use a security solution with features that prevent financial fraud, such as the Safe Money feature in Kaspersky Lab solutions<\/a>, which creates a secure environment in which financial transactions are specifically protected.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Tax season is hard enough without losing your money to cybercriminals \u2014 and getting ripped off is not tax-deductible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With many people filing their taxes online, cybercriminals focus on making money with tax-related phishing schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2045,"featured_media":14484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[354,818,76,192,726,1974],"class_list":{"0":"post-21404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tips","8":"tag-financial-security","9":"tag-money","10":"tag-phishing","11":"tag-protection","12":"tag-scam","13":"tag-tax"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tax-scam-2018\/21404\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tax-scam-2018\/14795\/"},{"hreflang":"tr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.tr\/blog\/tax-scam-2018\/4775\/"},{"hreflang":"pl","url":"https:\/\/plblog.kaspersky.com\/tax-scam-2018\/9020\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/money\/","name":"money"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2045"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21404"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33782,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21404\/revisions\/33782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}