HMRC Seasonal Spear Phishing Emails

Spear phishing emails appearing to be from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are known to increase in volume from January to March, towards the end of the UK financial year. The emails claim to offer tax rebates, enticing users with financial incentives.

Threat ID:: CC-1105
Category:
Threat Severity:: Medium
Threat Vector:: Spear phishing
Published:: 25 January 2017 12:00 AM

Report a cyber attack: call 0300 303 5222 or email [email protected]

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Summary

Affected platforms

The following platforms are known to be affected:

Microsoft Windows

All Windows Versions

Threat details

GP practices can be particularly susceptible to this type of scam as their contact information is often readily available. These emails can have all the hallmarks of an HMRC email but contain hidden links that redirect to malicious websites. Once the links are activated the user's machine can become infected with malware.

Emails from HMRC will never:

send notification of a tax rebate.
offer a repayment.
request personal information such as your full address, postcode, Unique Taxpayer Reference or bank account details.
request any responses to a non-HMRC personal email address.
request financial information such as specific figures or tax computations, unless you’ve given HMRC prior consent and formally accepted the risks.
have attachments, unless you’ve given HMRC prior consent and formally accepted the risks.
provide a link to a secure log-in page or a form asking for information - instead HMRC will ask you to log on to your online account to check for information.

Remediation steps

Type	Step
	Any email received from the HMRC requesting financial information or offering financial incentives should be treated with the utmost caution and checked before opening. A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails. All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date. All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts. Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged. Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity. If you suspect an email is malicious, follow the How to Identify Malicious Communications Within the NHS

Type

Step

Any email received from the HMRC requesting financial information or offering financial incentives should be treated with the utmost caution and checked before opening.
A robust program of education and awareness training is delivered to users to ensure they don’t open attachments or follow links within unsolicited emails.
All operating systems, antivirus and other security products are kept up to date.
All day to day computer activities such as email and internet are performed using non-administrative accounts.
Strong password policies are in place and password reuse is discouraged.
Network, proxy and firewall logs should be monitored for suspicious activity.
If you suspect an email is malicious, follow the How to Identify Malicious Communications Within the NHS

Last edited: 17 February 2020 11:32 am