Security News > 2020 > November > Scammers impersonating the IRS threaten victims with legal action
Aggressive scammers are impersonating the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in e-mails designed to trick potential victims into paying fabricated outstanding amounts related to missed or late payments.
The phishing emails target users of Microsoft's Office 365 platform and have so far reached an estimated number of up to 70,000 mail inboxes according to researchers at email security company Abnormal Security.
There is a high chance that at least some of the targets will give in and pay the fraudsters seeing that the scammers threaten them with Credit Bureau reports and legal action.
"The attacker impersonates the IRS, crafting a seemingly credible email threatening to press legal charges unless the recipient settles an outstanding account balance," the Abnormal Security researchers revealed.
To further intimidate and send their victims into panic mode, the scammers resort to legal threats and even add the possibility of an eventual arrest right from the start of the emails whose titles include a "Warrant for your arrest" warning.