Beware of Fraudsters as Tax Day Nears

By Sean Michael Kerner  |  Posted 2016-04-16
 
http://www.eweek.com/imagesvr_ce/309/290x195cybercrime99.jpgAs millions of Americans rush to file their tax returns by the April 18 deadline, opportunistic hackers are rushing to attack.
Tax filing-related fraud schemes are on the rise this year, with attackers making use of all manner of download, email and phone scams in an attempt to defraud taxpayers. 
The Internal Revenue Service has been warning taxpayers since February of a 400 percent rise in phishing and malware incidents this tax season. It's a trend that multiple security vendors have also observed, with attackers ramping up their efforts as tax day, which is April 18 this year, nears. 
Deepen Desai, head of security research at Zscaler, said his firm has observed a significant upward trend in tax-related schemes over the past three months. 
"In that time, we've seen roughly a 300 percent increase in tax-related events," Desai told eWEEK. "The sharpest jump in activity actually occurred this week, with a 400 percent increase compared to the previous week." full article here: