The Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) is once again warning of fake emails that are currently being sent to citizens in the name of the BMF.

The fraudulent emails with the subject “Great News! You have received a tax refund.” contain the information that the recipients will receive a tax refund and should provide their personal data for this purpose. The BMF therefore warns against this scam.

Example of such a phishing email

*******************************************
Financial online services

After the last annual calculations of your tax activity, we have determined that you are entitled to a tax refund of €400

Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 10 to 14 days to process it.

To access your tax refund, visit and follow the required steps.

Kind regards,
Finanz Online.
********************************************

The hyperlink contained leads to a fake website in the style of FinanzOnline, which asks you to enter personal information such as credit card details.

In addition, it is known that internet fraudsters have also contacted citizens by telephone and SMS in the past. The fraudsters posed as tax office employees and tried to trick those affected into handing over their personal account details.

The BMF emphasizes that this is an attempted internet fraud and that both the emails sent and the internet portal linked in them are fakes.

[mk_ad]

Information from the BMF generally takes the form of notifications and is delivered by post or to the FinanzOnline Databox. The BMF never asks citizens to submit personal data such as passwords, credit card details or account information.

Therefore, if you receive such a phishing email or an email with similar content, it is most likely an internet fraud attempt.

  • Under no circumstances follow the instructions contained therein!
  • Do not click on any links or files contained therein!
  • Do not under any circumstances disclose personal information such as passwords, credit card details or account information!
  • The BMF recommends deleting such emails immediately!

Further information on the characteristics of fraud attempts and necessary security measures can be found in our folder “Beware of fraud! Don’t give internet fraudsters a chance.” download on the BMF website (PDF, 3 MB) and is available for collection in all tax offices.

The BMF has already taken measures against this attempted fraud.

You might also be interested in: “Cineplexx-Austria” – Be careful of fake sites that give away tickets

Source: Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance
Article image: Shutterstock / By Tero Vesalainen
Sign up for the Mimikama newsletter

Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )