The spam filters are currently working overtime catching dubious email messages about tax payments having failed. As you might expect, this is a Tax Spam Malware Warning, so take care before opening anything that tells you that Your Tax Payment failed.
This email, which purports to be from US tax payment service Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), claims that the recipient’s tax payment has been rejected due to a submission error. The message, which includes a sender address and link that are seemingly valid EFTPS addresses, asks the recipient to click a link in order to review details about the error.
Obviously the email is not from the EFTPS, and the link in the message has been disguised so that it appears to point to the genuine EFTPS website. In fact, it is a phishing scam designed to steal personal information from recipients. A sample of the email appear below:
Your Tax Payment ID [random number] is failed
Your Federal Tax Payment ID: 32127292 has been rejected.
Return Reason Code R21 - The identification number used in the Company Identification Field is not valid.Please, check the information to get details about your company payment in transaction contacts section:
attach name = report.18653.pdf
In other way forward information to your accountant adviser.
EFTPS:
The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
PLEASE NOTE: Your tax payment is due regardless of EFTPS online availability. In case of an emergency, you can always make your tax payment by calling the EFTPS.
Attempting to open the attached file will result in a malware loader executing. This is detected by Sophos Anti-Virus as ‘Virus/Spyware Mal/FakeAV-OQ.
The gramatical errors should give you a clue to the bogus source of this Tax Spam Malware. Do not click on any links in this email or download any attachments. Flag as spam and press delete!