{"id":11626,"date":"2018-03-01T07:30:26","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/news-5397\/"},"modified":"2018-03-01T07:30:26","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T15:30:26","slug":"news-5397","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/03\/01\/news-5397\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold on to your wallets \u2014 it’s tax (scam) season again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Sarah Pike| Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:26:49 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tax season makes fools of many of us. Between confusion over complex filing rules and a general desire to claim the greatest possible refund, tax season is a cybercriminal’s paradise.<\/p>\n

On the business side, accountants and payroll departments slammed with extra seasonal work are targeted for W2 scams<\/a>. Ordinary people are more likely to encounter scams<\/a> based on the promise of a tantalizing refund or a Nigerian-style twist involving magical refunds to be sent to a “collection agency.”\"It's<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, tax-themed phishing and malware are just seasonal icing on the year-round scam-cake that is modern, online living. Take the usual precautions \u2014 and perhaps be even a bit more wary than usual \u2014 to stay safe this tax season.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Treat all communications with great care. Criminals dip into a varied bag of tricks that include phishing e-mails (usually looking like official communications from the IRS or other national tax organization), phishing phone calls, and fraudulent downloads posing as app updates.<\/li>\n
  2. Complete your tax returns early. We’re not being preachy, here \u2014 if you’re not rushing to get your tax return in on time, you’ll have time to consider carefully any e-mails, phone calls, or software updates that come your way.<\/li>\n
  3. Rely only on sources you trust for refund information. Reliable sources include a known tax professional and government agencies. If in doubt, double-check over the phone or in person \u2014 and use publicly available contact information, not a phone number or e-mail address from the communication you’re trying to verify.<\/li>\n
  4. Ensure all transactions take place over a secure connection such as a VPN<\/a>. If using a mobile app to file, be sure it, and any updates, are legit.<\/li>\n
  5. Treat e-mail messages with care, and don’t click on suspicious or unexpected attachments or links.<\/li>\n
  6. Use a security solution with features that prevent financial fraud, such as the Safe Money feature in Kaspersky Lab solutions<\/a>, which creates a secure environment in which financial transactions are specifically protected.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Tax season is hard enough without losing your money to cybercriminals \u2014 and getting ripped off is not tax-deductible.<\/p>\n

    https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Credit to Author: Sarah Pike| Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:26:49 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

    With many people filing their taxes online, cybercriminals focus on making money with tax-related phishing schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10425,10378],"tags":[11838,4809,3924,10432,3985,6338,10428],"class_list":["post-11626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kaspersky","category-security","tag-financial-security","tag-money","tag-phishing","tag-protection","tag-scam","tag-tax","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}