March 20, 2006 Researchers Warn Of Coming Tax Scams By Gregg Keizer Courtesy of Phishing scams playing off the impending April 15 deadline for filing federal taxes are on the upswing, a security company said Monday, and more schemes are in the works. San Diego-based Websense, Inc. said that its researchers have monitored a recent rise in the number of phishing attacks via fraudulent e-mails and sites that spoof the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Several of the ongoing campaigns to compromised servers beyond U.S. borders, a finding acknowledged last week by the IRS when it issued yet another warning about bogus sites and messages masquerading as notices from the IRS. aren't unusual. "Cyber thieves sit back and wait for current events such as tax season," said Dan Hubbard, senior director of Websense's security research, in a statement. "With tens of millions of online users filing their taxes on the Internet, many Web filers readily disclose personal identifiers such as network passwords, Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, or their mother's maiden name. "The combination of having a large pool of potential users to target and the timeliness of the current event could lead to high numbers of both consumer and corporate victims," added Hubbard. Last week, the IRS reminded Americans that it doesn't request PIN numbers, passwords, or similar access information for their credit card or bank accounts. It also -- as many as 12 sites hosted in 11 different countries are involved -- and offered up tips on avoiding identity theft. "There does seem to be a proliferation of them this filing season," Richard Morgante, commissioner of the IRS wage and investment division, told the Associated Press last week. "We have more thieves trying to take advantage of the filing season than we've seen in the past." Although Websense noted that the spurious sites can closely resemble the real deal -- and often include "IRS/claimrefund/caseid" or "www.irs.gov" in the address of the bogus -- users can easily avoid the fraudsters by not clicking on links in suspicious messages, and instead typing "www.irs.gov" directly into their browser's address bar. Users who receive phony e-mails claiming to be from the IRS should with the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or call the agency's hotline of 800-366-4484. E-mail This Story Print This Story Get the latest Messaging news, product info, and trends every week.			Spyware And Adware Continue To Plague PCs FTC Smacks Spammer With $900K Fine IM: Real-Time Securrity Problems For Financial Services Bot Herders Ready Attack Against Message Forums Microsoft Vows To Keep Pressure On Phishers The High Cost Of Data Loss     Messaging Pipeline's Main RSS Feed     Messaging Pipeline's Blog RSS Feed Editorial and vendor perspectives The Six Flavors Of Windows Vista Microsoft plans to release a full six-pack of Vista versions, one for every taste. Which Vista will be right for you? Hope is Not Enough When It Comes To Compliance Three Ways To Authenticate E-Mail And Stop Spam Wikis In The Workplace Review: Google Desktop 3 Vendors are now talking about how collaboration can be improved by integrating video with messaging applications. They're even talking about adding live TV to mobile phones. How far do you go before it becomes a bandwidth and business productivity drain? Video is a great idea     13% Video is fine but there needs to be size limits     25% It's never used for anything really productive     38% I draw the line at live TV     25% In search of messaging products? Check out our brand new Product Finder for a directory of groupware and collaboration tools, security products, archiving solutions, and more.