Although your taxes won’t be due until April, the scammers start coming out of the walls in February
That’s because many early birds file their tax returns as soon as they’ve received their information slips. If you have one or more email addresses that you use frequently, chances are those addresses are on a scammer’s contact list.
You may start to receive emails with one or more of these standard themes:
- You’re entitled to a tax refund, and all you have to do is click a link or call a phone number to get your refund.
- You owe more taxes, and unless you respond immediately by clicking a link or calling a phone number, you will be pursued by collectors from Revenue Canada or law enforcement officers.
You’d be surprised how many people fall for these scams, specially when the email message is dressed up to look like official correspondence, and may even contain links to actual information on government websites. In addition to the emails looking quite believable, the links you are requested to click will look very official.
Unfortunately, the links that appear inside an email can be easily spoofed. What is spoofing? Here’s an analogy. Picture a child sitting with a text book in hand, reading intently. A closer look may reveal that the child is actually reading a comic book, concealed within the text book. A spoofed link in an email appears to the casual observer to lead to a legitimate website. However, clicking on the link can result in you visiting a completely unrelated site. That site may contain a phony login page, where you might be prompted for your Social Insurance Number or other identification. Most internet browsers and email programs have the ability to reveal the “real” destination by simply holding your mouse above the link without clicking. If the browser reveals a website address that is in any way different than what is visible in the email, that’s a red flag.
The simplest way to avoid the scammers is to ignore and immediately delete all email reportedly coming from Canada Revenue (or any other country’s Revenue Service). That’s because the government will NEVER send emails to you, unless you have specifically contacted them about an issue and asked them to respond by email. No legitimate government agency, or bank for that matter, will ever send you an email which asks you to click on a link and enter any account-related information.
If you would like me to address any particular questions please use our Contact Form and send your request to the Computer Security columnist.
Jack Eisenberg is the owner of Safe and Secure Computing
