Online crims go phishing for Australian tax refunds

Peter Dinham
Monday, 24 August 2009 14:50

Business IT - Security

In addition to this latest research, VeriSign also revealed late last year that 84 per cent of Australians had received some form of online threat during 2008 via email from impostor banks or other institutions requesting money transfers, and despite the large percentage who reported receiving phishing messages, a “surprising 97 per cent of respondents still believed they were at low risk from online security threats.”

Dacal says it’s always important for consumers  to check whether or not a site is genuine and take measures to protect personal details online, “whether that be for a tax return, shopping online or checking your bank balance.”

Here, too, is what VeriSign recommends we Australians should keep our eyes open for as we try to evade these latest phishing scams:

•    https:// The “s” in https:// means the site is encrypted, so the information you enter is secured.  While some phishing sites do have a secured Web address, many do not.  Therefore, site visitors should be on the lookout for missing security on sites that should have it.

•    The padlock icon:  To be meaningful this icon must appear in the actual browser interface and not inside the content of the page itself.

•    Trust marks:  Simple visual cues in the form of popular logos can show that a Web site is authenticated, secured, and the company is reputable.

•    Check the Web address:  Be suspicious of any site with an unknown domain that contains the name of a well known site in the latter part of the Web address.

•    Green address bar:  This signifies that this site has undergone extensive identity authentication so that you can be confident it is the site it claims to be.

In a final word of warning, Dacal says that VeriSign’s research tested the applicability and understanding of a variety of phishing methods Australian consumers need to be aware of and found that “sneaky strategies such as imitation Web sites that try and phish your personal details have been shown to work across all demographics, particularly on the age group 45- 54 years.”