This week I received a nice email from the IRD, telling me I had a refund due to me.  In fact I was expecting a refund, although a lot smaller than this email told me I was getting, so, rather than just deleting the email as junk, I read it.

Sure enough my first thought was right – it was junk!  The email asked me to click on a link to confirm my details – checking the address the link went to I could see it was defiantly not the IRD!  But the site could confuse the unsuspecting – it had the IRD logo, links to other Government departments and a link to register with the IRD.

Click here to see the original email.

This is a good reminder that there are scammers out there trying to get your personal information – not just your bank account numbers but email passwords, IRD numbers, Trademe accounts etc.  When ever you get an email from any organisation asking for you to log in to their site to check some details – assume it is a scammer!  If you want to check, go to the organisations web site as you would normally (typing in the address or clicking on a bookmark – not the link in the email).  If it’s a real request there will be information about it on their site.  Otherwise, just delete the email!