Fraud Awareness Week may have just drawn to a close but we must still remember that fraudsters often go to great lengths to deceive their potential victims. On Wednesday I received a worryingly authentic looking scam email.
In the New Zealand Herald yesterday morning there was a small article that may have been overlooked by many. The IRD is warning customers not to respond to a hoax email claiming to offer the recipient a tax refund.
I received one of these very emails and I was shocked by how authentic it appeared. The return address is service [at] ird.govt.nz – but where these emails actually end up is anyone’s guess. The email states that under [quoted] sections of the Inland Revenue Code – of which the average reader most likely would not be aware – I was due a tax refund of $620.50. This is not an overly large or unbelievable amount like the hundreds of thousands of US dollars promised by other phishing schemes.
