Spammers exploit US stimulus package

Spammers are targeting the soon-to-be-launched US Stimulus plan

A new scam is targeting the US economic stimulus plan before the law has even been passed.

Researchers from Sans Institute reported that a new scam is offering users a refund from the US Internal Revenue Service.

The bogus message claims that the user is eligible for a stimulus payment which can be received by filling out an attached HTML form.

When the user launches the HTML file, the browser redirects to another site which, at the moment, displays a 404 error.

The attack signals what is expected to be a busy tax season for spammers. While tax-related scams have grown in popularity in the US and UK in recent years, the economic crisis and proposed tax package will only complicate matters.

Users will have one way to protect themselves, however, as tax payments in the US are only ever processed through direct deposit or postal service.

"Moral of the story, if it looks too good to be true, it is," wrote Sans researcher Adrien de Beaupre in a blog post. "The IRS will hopefully not be emailing out forms for economic stimulus payments any time soon."