A Strong Scam Assault On Irish Emails Detected, Faking Irish Sites

ESET Ireland finds new scams faking Irish Revenue, Irish Water and Irish Motor Tax correspondence, linked to phishing sites registered from China.

Cybercriminals know that familiar names of services or institutions can fool people into believing they’re receiving legitimate correspondence and make them click on things they shouldn’t be clicking on. That is why, tailored for the Irish “market”, they’re regularly (ab)using names of services and institutions familiar to the Irish.

This week ESET Ireland has spotted several such emails doing the rounds. The first claims it’s from Revenue – Irish Tax & Customs and says the recipient is eligible to receive a tax return and is directed to a link to “submit the request”.

Another purports to come from Irish Water and claims they are performing an annual account maintenance procedure, requiring the victim to “log in” with their account details.

And the last, titled Notice from Motor Tax, says “the Motor Tax for your last purchase has not been confirmed”, and asks to “confirm your car owner information”.

All three include links that lead to phishing websites that are associated with web addresses registered from China and all three use similar wording and include a “donotreply” email address, suggesting they all came from the same cybercriminal gang.

These sorts of phishing websites aim to trick the victim into revealing their login details, personal details and payment card information to cybercriminals, which can then proceed to use them for their nefarious purposes, usually aimed at separating people from their funds.

ESET Ireland recommends Irish users stay alert and avoid clicking on any links within these emails and alert the Gardaí if any info was already revealed to the scammers.

You can read the full story on ESET Ireland’s Official Blog.

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