Spam Phishing Email: Your tax return was incorrectly filled out ATO – Australian Taxation Office

This phishing spam email tells me I didn’t file my Australian taxes correctly. The spammer helpfully included a link which purportedly goes to a Tax Specialist. However, if you hover over the link, you see that the link points to a Spanish website that seems to have been hacked by whoever is responsible for the spam email being sent out: sanisidroalicante.puperico.com

Remember to be careful about NEVER clicking on links in a suspicious email. Even if you recognize the sender, you should be wary of clicking any links that feel suspicious. Things that made this email feel suspicous to me:

1) It says I incorrectly filed my taxes but I’ve never filed Australian Taxes.

2) I’ve never had any dealings that would fall under the Australian Taxation Office.

4) There’s an unsolicited link in the email

If you want to keep your computer clean. Never click on a link in an unsolicited email.

Here’s the full details of the email I got:

From: donotreply@ato.gov.au

Subject: Your tax return was incorrectly filled out

Attention: Owner/ Manager

We would like to inform you that you have made mistakes while completing the last tax form application (ID: 703426925598) .
Please follow the advice of our tax specialists HERE

Please amend the mistakes and send the corrected tax return to your tax agent as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

*************************************

The real Australian Taxation Office has a page that specifically talks about phishing emails like this one:
http://www.ato.gov.au/onlineservices/distributor.aspx?menuid=0&doc=/content/62347.htm&page=7#P224_10964

Remember, NEVER click on links in a suspicious email. Do a quick search to see if others have gotten the same email. You’re more likely to stay safe that way.