Forum search & shortcuts

just nearly fell fo...
 

[Closed] just nearly fell for my 1st phishing scam

Posts: 818
Free Member
Topic starter
 
[#660692]

not seen this one before but i just got an email supposedly from inland revenue telling me i had a refund due after sending in my latest return (which i had done in May). As i was actually expecting a refund i just clicked the link and starting filling out the form 😳

But stopped just before pressing submit, and thought i'd ring them to see. Lo and behold a scam email. I must be getting gullible in my old age.

Normally i bin any bank ones, but i think i just got fooled by this one as i was due a refund adn was quite close to having sent my return in!

Ah well at least i realised in time.

Anyway, link here to what it looks like so no one else gets fooled 🙂

[url= http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm ]HMRC[/url]

its the 'example 1' link if you scroll down the page (although mine was slightly different)


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:26 pm
Posts: 2
Free Member
 

If I recieve *anything* official looking by email it gets binned. Anyone important will contact me by snail mail.


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:30 pm
 cp
Posts: 8970
Full Member
 

anything in the web address before the actual address you want of any site should set alarm bells ringing. lucky you checked - could have been nasty!


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:30 pm
Posts: 818
Free Member
Topic starter
 

yeah i normally check the web address, but this came out as:

http://secure.hmrc.gov.uk.hmrc-service.com/tax-refund/refund.php

so it looked sort of ok to my non expert eye!

I've had ones before that have obviously been redirecting to unofficial sites

actually one thing that made it suspicios was the inland revenue logo on that form didnt seem right


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:43 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

http://secure.hmrc.gov.uk.hmrc-service.com/tax-refund/refund.php

looks OK except: the actual site is [b]hmrc-service.com[/b]


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:52 pm
Posts: 818
Free Member
Topic starter
 

ah well a lesson learned, as Samuri says above, bin them all and wait for snail mail!


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:55 pm
 cp
Posts: 8970
Full Member
 

yep, there was .com after and initial .gov.uk - gives it away


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 12:57 pm
Posts: 14934
Full Member
 

And if it was that secure it should be http[b]s[/b]://


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 1:02 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I've just NOT fallen for a phishing scan. I got a reminder email from British Gas that my bill was overdue with a link. Stupidly, I clicked and paid. Now it wasn't a scam, everything checks out OK. but I broke the golden view. But should they be putting links on their reminder emails?


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 6:23 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Me and er indoors have both had very good looking e-mails supposedly from paypal. Apart from the name not being right they were spot on in every respect. No spelling mistakes logo identical even the colour was spot on. Samuri has the right idea.


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 6:59 pm
 SST
Posts: 5
Free Member
 

Who hosts these sites?

I can't type anything anywhere without my IP address being logged and there are sites whos adverts tell me acuratly where I'm living, so it certainly shouldn't be rocket science for the authorities to trace them and go round and kick them in the nuts.


 
Posted : 25/06/2009 7:12 pm