Online crims go phishing for Australian tax refunds

Peter Dinham
Monday, 24 August 2009 14:50

Business IT - Security

Cyber criminals have been tricking Australian taxpayers into revealing highly sensitive, personal information – essentially stealing their identities – to get hold of their tax refunds in a new phishing scam targeting the Australian Tax Office.

The phishing scam, using false ATO communications, was revealed today by security firm, VeriSign, who commissioned a YouGov survey which shows that Australia is, in fact, one of the most vulnerable countries, alongside the UK and the US, to online fraud attacks.

According to the survey, 86 percent of Australian Web users are at risk of online fraud because they are unable to identify the different forms of phishing, and VeriSign says the findings of this latest survey are a timely reminded to all Australian consumers of the consequences they may face if they don’t take care when sharing personal information online.

The global survey asked more than 8,000 respondents across nine countries to "spot the difference" between real and fake Web sites from VeriSign’s recently launched the Phish or no Phish challenge.

VeriSign warns that new areas for fraudsters to “monopolise our time and infiltrate our bank accounts and personal identities” continues to rise and says that Australians need to take note and listen to the warnings.

According to VeriSign, ATO statistics released just this week, show that 90 per cent of tax returns are now done online, which according to the security firm means that awareness of phishing scams is more important than ever, and Australians particularly need to take heed.

VeriSign Asia Pacific director of authentication services, Armando Dacal, said today scare tactics by fraudsters remains an effective form of phishing for Australian consumers, and he cautions that, despite targeted education efforts by banks, online retailers and other institutions alerting customers not to share their personal information online, almost a quarter - 23% percent -  of Australians still fall into this trap.

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