Tag Archives: scam

IRS Tax Payment Rejection Scam

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4

Are people really this stupid?

I got an email message from “TAX@irs.gov” today claiming that:

Your federal Tax payment (ID: HF2IRS598523201), recently sent from your checking account was returned by the your financial institution.

For more information, please download notification below. (Security PDF Adobe file)

http://www.feftechnicalsupport.co.uk/google/[REDACTED].php

Seriously?

Are people really stupid enough to click a link on a site based in the UK for an IRS tax issue? Are people really stupid enough to click a link to a PHP file that’s supposed to be a PDF file?

Here’s a copy of the message. If you got one of these, “raise your hand” by posting a comment below. I’m curious.

And spread the word; you have no idea how much it irks me that scammers are preying upon people dumb enough to believe crap like this.

Tax Scam Email

Amex Personal Key Scam

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3

Yet another phishing scam.

Got this one supposedly from American Express today. Pointing to a link in the email message clearly showed that clicking a link would not take me to an American Express website:

American Express Scam

Compare the look of that email message with the top of a real one from Amex:

American Express Legit message

Note that the real one includes my full name and even the last five digits of my credit card number (which I’ve blurred out here). When I point to a link in that message, the URL goes to a page at americanexpress.com.

Don’t be fooled! If you get a message from a bank or credit card company — or any other organization on which you have an account — go directly to that organization’s website by typing in the URL. Do not click a link in an email message. It may take you somewhere you don’t expect or install software that can infect your computer with malware.

Sales Force Email Scam

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3

Yep. Another one.

Here’s another attempt to get unsuspecting people — in this case, business owners — to open a file that will likely install malware on their computer. This one supposedly comes from support@salesforce.com and has a ZIP file attachment. It was addressed to my Flying M Air business email address and includes a link to my website. Keep in mind that my business email address is quite generic and could have been guessed by the sender.

The complete message is shown below.

Sales Force Email Scam

Once again I need to remind everyone who might be taken in by emails like this: don’t open any file attachment that you are not expecting, especially if it comes from a person or organization you are not already doing business with.