US-CERT is aware of a series of scams circulating that are related to the United States Internal Revenue Service.

The first of these attacks, attempts to convince users to open bogus tax documents that may contain malicious code. Additional attacks attempt to convince users to follow a link in an email message to an unofficial tax website that may contain malicious code or request personal information as part of a phishing scam.

US-CERT encourages users to do the following to help mitigate the risks:

• Install anti-virus software and keep virus signature files up-to-date.
• Do not follow unsolicited links.
• Block executable and unknown file types at the email gateway.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks document for more information on social engineering attacks.
• Refer to the Internal Revenue Service Suspicious e-Mails and Identity Theft website for more information on current scams.