With Tax Day just one day away and people rushing to file their tax returns, cybersecurity experts are warning of the increased risk that comes with this time.
Cybercriminals are quick to exploit seasonal events — and tax season is no exception. It’s a yearly honeypot for cybercriminals, who take advantage of heightened stress, tight deadlines, and sensitive financial data.
The KnowBe4 Threat Labs has published a threat alert finding a spike in tax-related phishing scams this spring.
The full alert can be read here: https://blog.knowbe4.com/beware-tax-trap-seasonal-urgency-drives-spike-in-tax-related-phishing
According to the alert, the researchers observed a 27.9% increased in phishing attacks in March 2025 compared with the previous month. Across both the US and the EU, many of these phishing attacks contained financially-themed payloads.
In particular, they identified a sharp spike in tax-related phishing activity on March 14, 2025, with 16% of all phishing emails processed that day containing the word “tax” in the subject line. Interestingly, only 4.3% of these tax-themed phishing emails were sent from free email services.
Nearly half of all identified attacks (48.8%) originated from compromised business email accounts, while 7.8% leveraged the legitimate QuickBooks service, as observed in previous incidents.
In this alert, the KnowBe4 Threat Labs dives into several different tactics that cybercriminals are employing including embedded QR codes, polymorphic subject lines, and lookalike email domains, as well as what organizations can do to respond to this heightened threat.
Additionally, Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Champion at Pixel Privacy has provided the following commentary on the subject of tax season/tax day.
“U.S. taxpayers need to stay alert for scammers that tell you to “pay now or else.” IRS agents do want to make you pay, but they will usually work with taxpayers and work out a reasonable payment schedule to pay their tax debt. Tax scammers posing as IRS agents may also threaten victims with arrest or deportation if they don’t immediately receive a “tax payment.””
“Make sure you use a reputable tax accountant to do your taxes. Don’t take “tax advice” from anyone on social media. In many cases, videos on social media try to convince viewers that they know of loopholes that can be used to avoid paying taxes, or misinform viewers about the number of exemptions they can claim.”
Stay safe out there.
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This entry was posted on April 14, 2025 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags KnowBe4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Tax Day and the Seasonal Urgency that Cybercriminals Love to Exploit
With Tax Day just one day away and people rushing to file their tax returns, cybersecurity experts are warning of the increased risk that comes with this time.
Cybercriminals are quick to exploit seasonal events — and tax season is no exception. It’s a yearly honeypot for cybercriminals, who take advantage of heightened stress, tight deadlines, and sensitive financial data.
The KnowBe4 Threat Labs has published a threat alert finding a spike in tax-related phishing scams this spring.
The full alert can be read here: https://blog.knowbe4.com/beware-tax-trap-seasonal-urgency-drives-spike-in-tax-related-phishing
According to the alert, the researchers observed a 27.9% increased in phishing attacks in March 2025 compared with the previous month. Across both the US and the EU, many of these phishing attacks contained financially-themed payloads.
In particular, they identified a sharp spike in tax-related phishing activity on March 14, 2025, with 16% of all phishing emails processed that day containing the word “tax” in the subject line. Interestingly, only 4.3% of these tax-themed phishing emails were sent from free email services.
Nearly half of all identified attacks (48.8%) originated from compromised business email accounts, while 7.8% leveraged the legitimate QuickBooks service, as observed in previous incidents.
In this alert, the KnowBe4 Threat Labs dives into several different tactics that cybercriminals are employing including embedded QR codes, polymorphic subject lines, and lookalike email domains, as well as what organizations can do to respond to this heightened threat.
Additionally, Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Champion at Pixel Privacy has provided the following commentary on the subject of tax season/tax day.
“U.S. taxpayers need to stay alert for scammers that tell you to “pay now or else.” IRS agents do want to make you pay, but they will usually work with taxpayers and work out a reasonable payment schedule to pay their tax debt. Tax scammers posing as IRS agents may also threaten victims with arrest or deportation if they don’t immediately receive a “tax payment.””
“Make sure you use a reputable tax accountant to do your taxes. Don’t take “tax advice” from anyone on social media. In many cases, videos on social media try to convince viewers that they know of loopholes that can be used to avoid paying taxes, or misinform viewers about the number of exemptions they can claim.”
Stay safe out there.
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This entry was posted on April 14, 2025 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags KnowBe4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.