Early 2013 Tax Return Report – Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Virus Email

Early 2013 Tax Return Report – Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Virus Email

The email message below: "Early 2013 Tax Return Report!" has a virus or Trojan horse attached to it that will infect your Windows computer if you open it. The message was designed to trick the recipients into opening the malicious attachment, disguised as a Tax Return Report, by asking the recipients to view it in order to start filing for their 2013 tax returns.

The Malicious Email - Early 2013 Tax Return Report

Subject: ATTN: Early 2013 Tax Return Report!

Dear Member

Here is a report on your early 2013 Federal Tax return report. Kindly download the attachment to view your report and start filling for 2013 return as early as second week of December.

Thanks

Internal Revenue Service
915 Second Avenue, MS W180
Seattle, WA 98174-0041
http://www.irs.gov/

Attachment: Early2013TaxReturnReport_2D2F9D2EF1.zip
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This email message was not sent by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the attachment (Early2013TaxReturnReport _2D2F9D2EF1.zip ) is not a Tax Return Report, but a Zip or compressed files, which contain the Windows malicious executable file:
Early2013TaxReturnReport_ 9834569485749805723984563249 65984573984509324.pdf.exe

When we scanned the file, the following threats were detected:

  • Zbot.EVJ
  • W32/Trojan.KHPU-6775
  • Trojan.DownLoader9.22851
  • Win32/PSW.Fareit.A
  • W32/Trojan3.HBO
  • Trojan-PSW.Win32.Fareit.amzs
  • Trojan.FakeBankDoc
  • Troj/Agent-AFMX
  • TROJ_GEN.F47V0109
  • Dropper.Agent.102400.R

Once your computer has become infected with this malicious Trojan horse, the cybercriminals behind this email message will be able to access and take control of your computer remotely from anywhere around the world. They may spy on you, use your computer to commit cybercrimes, or steal your personal and financial information.

Now, if you have already opened the malicious attachment, please do a full scan of your computer with the antivirus software installed on it. The name of the attachment may change, so be careful when opening email attachments. 

If you don’t have antivirus software installed on your computer, please click here for a list of free antivirus software.

Never open an attachment that has a name ending with “.exe”, because these are computer programs that can infect your computer with a virus or some other malware.

Click here for a list of email attachments you should never open, regardless of where they came from.

Check the comment section below for additional information, share what you know, or ask a question about this article by leaving a comment below. And, to quickly find answers to your questions, use our search Search engine.

Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.
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Comments, Questions, Answers, or Reviews

Comments (Total: 2)

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  • January 10, 2014 at 10:41 PM by an anonymous user from: Canandaigua, New York, United States

    Received this in our email today (1/10/14). Our Mac's anti-virus immediately flagged it though it likely would have no effect on our Mac (you can never be sure nowadays). As always, notes like these have indicators in the form of poor grammar, typos, and a strange voice. Some of the ones noticed in this are:<br/>- When has the IRS ever emailed you, or at least with an email that's so generic and supposedly contains an attachment with highly sensitive personal information that's also in the form of a zip file vs. just a PDF?<br/>- "Dear Member"? Member of what and if you're emailing me my tax return, I'd think you'd know my name.<br/>- The "Here's a report of your report" structure of the first sentence is awkward and errantly redundant.<br/>- I would never expect a government department communication to start a sentence with the word "Kindly." "Please" possibly but more likely it would just start with the direction ("Download the…").<br/>- The typo of "filling" instead of "filing" in the second sentence.<br/>- Referring to a timeline that's already long past ("as early as the second week of December" when we're already well into January).<br/><br/>Lots to clue in that this is not legit if you take a few minutes to review after the initial panic over the IRS emailing you wears off. ;-)

  • January 9, 2014 at 5:14 PM by an anonymous user from: Carmel, Indiana, United States

    I have this issue on my computer and cannot delete the files. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and I am running Windows 7 Ultimate.

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Early 2013 Tax Return Report – Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Virus Email