Faltering worldwide economies may be bad for our personal pocketbooks but for scammers and thieves the bad news spells opportunity. Watch for increases in fraudulent emails like this one reported by the Department of Homeland Security.

US-CERT is aware of public reports indicating that phishing scams are circulating via fraudulent U.S. Internal Revenue Service emails offering users stimulus package payments. These emails include text that attempts to convince users to follow a link to a website or to complete an attached document. The website and document request the user to provide personal information.

Users receiving the fraudulent email messages are encouraged to send the email message and the website URL to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.

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

* Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages.

My tip: Nobody gives you anything for free. Don’t click links in emails that promise something that sounds too good to be true. Chances are that a rich dictator located several thousand miles away doesn’t need you to funnel a few hundred million to the states – and doesn’t a $5 million “finders fee” sound a little too good to be true?

US-Cert