14 DAY TRIAL // Fake emails that purport to come from Intuit, the company that develops tax preparation and other financial software, have been recently spotted while trying to dupe Internet users into visiting a compromised website.
Spyware Sucks has provided an email sample that looks something like this:
Hello,
With a view to guarantee that accurate data is being sustained on our systems, and to be able to grant you better quality service; INTUIT INC. has participated in the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] Name and TIN Matching Program.
We have discovered, that your name and/or Social Security Number, that we have on your account does not correspond to the information provided by the IRS.
In order to verify your account, please enter the site [link]. Yours sincerely, INTUIT INC. The link doesn’t actually point to the Intuit website. Instead, it takes users to the website of a company from Denmark that offers engineering services.
It’s highly possible that the site had been compromised and altered to host a phishing page or a piece of malware. At press time, the webpage added by the cybercriminals was removed and the site appeared to be clean.
This particular scam has at least three other similar variants that have been mostly seen in January and February 2012. As it turns out, the scammers have re-launched the campaign in hopes of stealing the credentials of unsuspecting users.
We advise you to be on the lookout for such emails and delete them as soon as they hit your inbox.
Also, remember that all-important rule - companies will never ask you to disclose sensitive information such as passwords, social security numbers, PINs and other financial details via telephone or email.