New IRD scam?

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › New IRD scam?

Zepanda66

533 posts

Ultimate Geek

#264321 16-Jan-2020 12:29

Mum received a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be from IRD. Apparently they tried to refund her some money into her bank account they told her to check her email to claim the money. So she tells me about this cause shes not clued up on technology and all that and the email looks dodgy from the get go. It looked quite official and someone not clued up on technology could easily miss the signs it was a scam. First of all it wasnt coming from IRD at all. Weirdly It was from a xtra.co.nz email and they tried to mask their phishing domain with an official looking but obviously fake looking link from IRD.

The probably got everything else of google images or the official website itself for all the IRD promo materials etc. They tried to make it look legit and all that. Obviously we deleted the email, did a virus scan on her laptop. Found a few viruses, got rid of those. Hopefully thats the end of that. Luckily she didn't give away any vital personal information so hopefully we're in the clear. No idea how they got our landline though. That part is slightly unnerving. After this we are seriously considering dropping out landline. Since its kinda useless. And we both have mobile phones anyway. Just thought id let folks know about this.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/7315955530.png

frankv

5680 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2399065 16-Jan-2020 14:42

Why is there no "quote" button?

Me, cutting and pasting the original post, like a damn caveman...

Mum received a phone call this morning from someone claiming to be from IRD. Apparently they tried to refund her some money into her bank account they told her to check her email to claim the money. So she tells me about this cause shes not clued up on technology and all that and the email looks dodgy from the get go. It looked quite official and someone not clued up on technology could easily miss the signs it was a scam. First of all it wasnt coming from IRD at all. Weirdly It was from a xtra.co.nz email and they tried to mask their phishing domain with an official looking but obviously fake looking link from IRD.

The probably got everything else of google images or the official website itself for all the IRD promo materials etc. They tried to make it look legit and all that. Obviously we deleted the email, did a virus scan on her laptop. Found a few viruses, got rid of those. Hopefully thats the end of that. Luckily she didn't give away any vital personal information so hopefully we're in the clear. No idea how they got our landline though. That part is slightly unnerving. After this we are seriously considering dropping out landline. Since its kinda useless. And we both have mobile phones anyway. Just thought id let folks know about this.

Rule of thumb: It you suspect it might be a scam, it almost certainly is.

Regarding phone numbers and email addresses: Lists are bought and sold in the Internet underworld; the more information a list contains, the more valuable it is. So someone may start with just a bunch of email addresses, which they will attempt to add street addresses or real names or phone numbers or (the holy grail) credit card numbers to. They will then on-sell their improved list (perhaps after trying a scam or two on it themselves) for more money.

So your mother should be alert for more phone calls and emails. :(

Goosey

2830 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2399074 16-Jan-2020 14:52

Regarding the "quote button", its not avalible for the first reply... i.e. if you are the first to reply, then why the need to quote the OP?

vexxxboy

4244 posts

Uber Geek

#2399152 16-Jan-2020 17:03

i got one today and it fooled my wife but as since i dont have any income and dont pay tax and the fact that when you click the link , Thunderbird warns me that it doesnt go to the link but to goes to sysconsensors.com, then it is a scam.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Jase2985

13459 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2400247 16-Jan-2020 20:41

@frankv why do you need to quote the first post? you can only be refering to it.

i got a spam ird email today, email address was an extra account and i logged in (not via the email) and low and behold nothing there. reported it to their phishing email address

frankv

5680 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2400261 16-Jan-2020 21:27

Yeah, makes sense on reflection. Except that when you're typing your reply, you can't actually see the original post.

I had thought to only quote bits of the original, and then got distracted and didn't do that.

And apologies to the OP for derailing his thread.

nzkiwiman

2585 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#2402043 20-Jan-2020 10:33

I got this one (from an Xtra email address); the from email address gave it away, as did the numerous spelling mistakes. What surprised me was the extra detail they used to make it look like an IRD newsletter - as the email went on and on with what looked like legit information.