The people who spam and phish for data must be celebrating. There is good news for Massachusetts tax payers:

“The Internal Revenue Service is putting out an all-points bulletin for Massachusetts tax payers who are collectively owed $3 million in refunds - or an average of more than $1,000 each.”

link: IRS wants to refund $3m to Mass. residents

This is ideal for the social engineering that will follow. People in Massachusetts will have seen the news item in the media. Then there is the email from the IRS. The only thing is… the IRS is not emailing you. The people phishing for your personal information are email you.

Along with this news item should be cautionary notes to the tax payers of Massachusetts.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: irs, phishing, security, spam, email, tax refund, massachusetts