Be alert for incoming myGov scams, the latest carrying the subject line, ‘New Refund’. myGov is the Australian government services portal, where Australian’s access everything from Medicare, Centrelink and Child Support, plus a range of other government services. Over 96% of Australian’s have accessed at least one service online, with more than 25 million registered myGov accounts. It makes the portal a hot target for opportunistic cybercriminals, often targeting some of the more vulnerable members of society.
This scam is a plausible fake, complete with the myGov logo and the Australia Government coat of arms, it claims to be delivering an outstanding refund and could easily trick an unsuspecting recipient. The sender display name is ‘myGov’, and the sender email address is support(at)payroll-expert(dot)hu.
The initial phishing email is pictured below.
When a recipient clicks through to claim their refund, they arrive at the myGov scam phishing page, which asks for the users’ username or email and password. The phishing page is a well-crafted fake and will be difficult for many users to spot, the main giveaway being the URL which is not the official government website.
After clicking the ‘Sign in’ button, users are directed to a page to update their information, which requests their credit card information, date of birth and phone number.
Clicking to ‘Validate’ the information lands users on a page that requests verification via SMS message. In reality, it is likely that the scammers are processing a transaction with the credit card information supplied, and the SMS code is actually the transaction verification number, however unsuspecting victims are unlikely to realise until it’s too late.
After clicking ‘Confirm’ to submit the code, the victim is presented with a processing screen before being redirected to the legitimate myGov website at https://my.gov.au/en/search.
Despite some clumsy errors, like two different refund amounts displayed, being 453.90 AUD and 516 AUD in the phishing email, and small grammatical errors like the formatting of the date, this scam is otherwise well crafted and will be convincing enough to catch many Australians unaware. Refund scams in particular are a cruel type of attack that targets the most vulnerable in society who are in dire need of the money.
myGov offers the following advice to all users:
“myGov is delivered by Services Australia. We will never send you an email or SMS with a hyperlink directing you to sign in to your myGov account. Always access myGov by typing in the web address yourself.
Services Australia and myGov will never send you an email or text message asking for your:
- username
- password
- myGov PIN
- secret questions and answers
- personal details.
When you are signed in to myGov, the messages in your myGov Inbox are secure. It’s safe to open links included in myGov Inbox messages.”
MailGuard advises all recipients of this email to delete it immediately without clicking on any links. Providing your personal details can result in your sensitive information being used for criminal activity and may have a severe negative impact on your business and its financial well-being.
MailGuard urges users not to click links or open attachments within emails that:
- Are not addressed to you by name.
- Appear to be from a legitimate company but use poor English or omits personal details that a legitimate sender would include.
- Are from businesses that you were not expecting to hear from, and/or
- Take you to a landing page or website that is not the legitimate URL of the company the email is purporting to be sent from.
Many businesses turn to MailGuard after an incident or a near miss, often as a result of an email similar to the one shown above. If unwanted emails are a problem for your business, don’t wait until it’s too late.
Reach out to our team for a confidential discussion by emailing expert@mailguard.com.au or calling 1300 30 44 30.
One email is all that it takes
All that it takes to devastate your business is a cleverly worded email message that can steal sensitive user credentials or disrupt your business operations. If scammers can trick one person in your company into clicking on a malicious link or attachment, they can gain access to your data or inflict damage on your business.
For a few dollars per staff member per month, you can protect your business with MailGuard's predictive and advanced email security. Talk to a solution consultant at MailGuard today about securing your company's inboxes.
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