New scam: European Commission tax information

This morning’s mail brought an official-looking message with an European Union Taxation and Customs Union banner… addressed to our info@ email account. It claims to be from the europa.eu domain, but the message actually originated from the pelayanweb.com domain, which is a hosting service in Malaysia.

The message is a straightforward phishing attempt, offering a faux tax refund as bait to snag your bank-account info. Don’t be scammed, don’t be fooled!

Dear Financial Customer,

This is in reference to your account with a financial institution in one of the participating EU Countries, in light of the 2008 Tax System relating to the EU Savings Tax Directive. We believe you have over the years been charged Taxes on your account which normally should not apply to your status as a non resident.

The Directive is an agreement between the Member States of the European Union (EU), which require each Member State to exchange information with each other about EU residents who earn interest on savings and investments in one EU Member State, but live in another.

To avoid withholding Tax/ double Taxation on your non-resident SAVER, BROKERAGE AND INSURANCE ACCOUNTS, since you are non EU resident we will require you fill a simple confidential Tax form that will be sent to you by fax or email upon your response. We advice that you provide a confidential fax number or email so our office can forward to you immediately the Tax form

We will require you to fill/sign and return to our office through our confidential email or fax numbers below before the 3oth of October 2008. Once we receive and review your application any unlawful Tax on your account since the inception of the EU Savings Tax Directive in 2005 will be refunded to you with interest. Please submit separate forms for your checking, savings and fixed deposit accounts

László Kovács
Commissioner