Security News > 2022 > January > Tax scam emails are alive and well as US tax season starts
In South Africa, you get an IRP5 at the end of the tax year - an archaic term that we are guessing is short for Inland Revenue/Personal, Form #5, even though the South African tax office hasn't been called the Inland Revenue for nearly 25 years.
Here at Naked Security, we know the names of these forms, amongst numerous others, because they often show up in tax scam emails, presumably to give those messages an air of realism.
Anyway, given that it's the last week in January, and thus that US tax filing season is about to get underway, we weren't surprised to receive a tax-related scam email today, and to see the W-2 form mentioned explicitly.
Usually, when we write about tax scams, we're warning about traditional phishing campaigns where the idea is to trick you into "Logging in" to a bogus site where your tax office account details and password get captured by cybercriminals.
Instead, many cybercriminals are adopting the "Human led" approach that has served criminals such as advance fee fraudsters and romance scammers so well over the years.
I actually intend to change cpa for my 2021 tax return, Would like to know if your firm is open to accept new clients for the next tax year, All my documents are completed, all I am yet to have is just my W2. Kindly advise on how to proceed and if I can send forth all the available documents and whats are your fees for individual returns.