the SMS with which they are trying to scam you by taking advantage of the Income Tax return

2024-04-08 14:32:23

Cybercriminals always take advantage of the designated dates of the year to launch better targeted scams. And the Income Tax return, as we have already explained, is by no means an exception. Recently, the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe) has warned about the discovery of a new malicious campaign in which criminals impersonate the Tax agency to scam Internet users.

In this case, the scam is carried out through SMS messages in which the victim is informed that they will receive a payment for the presentation of income for the year 2023. The message includes a link for the user to be redirected to a fraudulent websitein which, through forms, you must enter your personal and banking information.

Incibe warns that, so far, it has detected several types of messages with the same purpose, which include some spelling errors and an unofficial URL from the Tax Agency. In the SMS attached with the information, the criminals indicate that the victim will receive a payment in the amount of 411.00 euros as a refund of taxes paid.

Another of the scams involves

If the Internet user clicks on the link that accompanies the message, he or she is redirected to a fraudulent website that pretends to be the official one of the Tax Agency. This asks you to enter your full name, credit card number, expiration date, CVV and PIN. Enough data to impersonate the victim and with which criminals can launch other scams.

Don’t peck

Despite the spelling errors, the fact that the Tax Agency actually notifies users directly of the refund via SMS can cause someone to end up confused and think that it is a true notification. But what’s up?

In the SMS that the agency actually sends, it only notes that “the payment of your refund of the Personal Income Tax for the relevant year has been ordered.” In this case, 2023. No specific money figures are added to the message nor, of course, any link for the user to provide more data.

“The Tax Agency insists that it never requests confidential, economic or personal information, account numbers or taxpayer card numbers by email, SMS or Bizum, nor does it attach annexes with invoice information or other types of data,” they warn from the institution.