Taking advantage of the opening of the 2022 tax return service, scammers are sending emails promising a tax refund. A classic phishing scam designed to steal your bank details.
From April 13, taxpayers are called upon to complete their tax return for the year 2022. This is the moment chosen by scammers to launch a new phishing campaign pretending to be the public finance department. The 2023 version comes in the form of an email announcing (very) good news, namely that the Public Treasury has decided to proceed, in your favor, with a tax refund, most often amounting to several hundred euros. “We are pleased to inform you that, following our processing of your tax return, we have calculated that you are entitled to a tax refund in the amount of €115.49”thus announces one of the messages marked with 60 Million consumers.
A boon in this period of inflation and compression of purchasing power. But, above all, a trap! Because before paying you money, the real-fake tax services behind which the scammers hide must first make sure that the information about you is correct. And to do this, you are invited to fill out a form – branded in the colors of the site Impots.gouv.fr – where you are asked to enter your bank details. According to the website 60 Million consumersthis type of scam has become so frequent in recent days that the DGFiP (the Directorate General of Public Finances) was forced to close accounts targeted by hacking attempts as a preventive measure. So don’t fall for the trap!
Mail to the tax refund: how to spot the scam?
To avoid being robbed, adopt a few good reflexes. So, even if it’s not always easy to spot this type of scam when you check your emails on the move on a smartphone, it’s always a good idea not to rush, to take the time to sit down and check things, starting with dialing the email address that was used leek to send you this fraudulent message. Admittedly, the scammers may have had the good idea of creating an address close to an official impots.gouv.fr address, but since these are not always Nobel Prize winners, you can count on the fact that they use an address mail of the most far-fetched. In the case of 60 million consumers, the sender address was [email protected]. Nothing to do with the Department of Public Finances!
Second important element, if you clicked on the phishing link sending you back to the fraudulent site and questionnaire, before communicating any personal information and a fortiori your bank details, take care to check the URL, i.e. i.e. the address of the site to which you have been redirected. The address of the official site is of the type https://www.impots.gouv.fr/.
Once again, take your time, and it is better to check things for yourself by logging directly into your Impots.gouv.fr account by identifying yourself securely via France Connect. You will then very easily see the deception.
Finally, it is important to keep in mind that the tax authorities will never, ever ask you for a bank card number for the payment of a tax or for the reimbursement of a tax credit, neither by e-mail, nor by SMS, nor by any means whatsoever.
If despite everything, you are trapped, which can unfortunately quite happen, contact your bank as soon as possible and follow the recommendations given by the official prevention site. cybermalveillance.gouv.frthen in a second step, do not forget to report the fraudulent message to the following Signal Spam services, Pharosor directly to 33700 if you have been the victim of a (successful) phishing attempt (or phishing in good French) by SMS. Fraudulent SMS campaign, identity theft, false transfer order scam, premium rate number scam… the tax services regularly warn Internet users and taxpayers about a dedicated page on this subject against what has become a real scourge.