New tax scam raises security warnings

Scammers are using phoney tax forms to deliver a Trojan horse

Security experts have warned of a new malware attack that masquerades as a tax document.

The US Computer Emergency Response Team (US-Cert) said that it had received numerous reports of malicious spam messages claiming to be from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The messages claim that the IRS has discovered unreported income from the recipient's tax forms, and instructs them to open additional material attached to the email.

Rather than receiving tax forms, however, the victim becomes infected with a Trojan downloader which attempts to compromise the system with further malware installations.

The use of phoney tax forms and other seemingly official documents has become a popular method for infecting users with malware. Security experts noted that such attacks often increase in size and scope during the tax season.

US-Cert is advising people who receive the emails to avoid opening any attachments, and to contact the IRS through its scam reporting site.

The agency pointed out that it does not send notice of fees or other official documents via email.