Illustration: income taxes – PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP
The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFIP) promises you a reimbursement of 490 euros in an email? Don’t Click: This is a phishing campaign aimed at stealing your banking information, reports Numerama.
The subject of this phishing e-mail is “[email protected]” and takes on the appearance of an official message. “After the final calculations of your rights, we announce that you are eligible to receive a refund on the card registered in your customer area”, indicates the content of the message, which announces an attractive amount of 490 euros.
A fake tax website
According to the letter, the DGFIP could not have proceeded with the reimbursement for an obscure reason: the postal code recorded in its space would not be associated with a bank account. To recover the amount owed, the victim must therefore just connect via the link provided in the email and change their postal code. Easy as pie.
The link takes to a fairly faithful copy of the tax website, which just has a weird and suspicious URL: kydsjqt.cluster030.hosting.ovh [.]net, and not cfspart.impots.gouv.fr. Once identified, the victim is invited to complete the “electronic reimbursement form” where they are obviously asked for their bank details.
Oppose quickly
Several details make it possible to identify that this is a phishing campaign. There are grammatical errors, and the e-mail speaks of a “customer area” as if it were a commercial site. But the main clue must come from the fact that the tax site does not allow you to register your bank details, and will never ask taxpayers for them by a simple email.
If you have ever been the victim of this phishing, you must quickly change your login details, says Numerama. And if you have communicated your credit card information, you must object as soon as possible.