The Bureau of Internal Revenue has warned the public anew against the sinister activities of cyber criminals sending fake emails to extract confidential information for financial and other malicious purposes.
Revenue Deputy Commissioner for Information Systems Lanee Cui-David issued the advisory again after spotting the resurgence of the racket which surfaced early this year.
“The BIR is not the victim here but the taxpayers,” said David.
She said scammers or phishers posing as legitimate revenue officers are asking intimate information from their would-be victim’s username and password in the guise of reconciling his tax records.
She added that breaching one’s website can cause serious physical and emotional distress.
David pointed out the bureau never asked taxpayers to log-in their accounts on the BIR eServices via the embedded links.
In case they receive doubtful email, David advised taxpayer not to click the link and attachments but instead close the message immediately and delete it from the inbox.
According to the revenue official, they have been holding regular information security awareness and data privacy briefings especially among newly-hired personnel. (Jun Ramirez)
