Taxpayers, attention! Phishing attack is taking place. Sending of fake emails containing malicious software

Press service of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, published 19 August 2024 at 15:40 Chapter: News

In recent days, the fact of mass distribution of e-mails, allegedly on behalf of the State Tax Service of Ukraine, containing links to download file has been recorded. In case of following the attached link, file will be downloaded to your computer, opening which will lead to the launch of malicious program that will create technical opportunities for hidden unauthorized access to personal computers.

With this in mind, we inform that such messages are sent from electronic mailboxes that have nothing to do with the State Tax Service of Ukraine.

We appeal to payers to pay special attention to the sender’s e-mail address of the letter and check its authenticity.

Paragraph 2 of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 851 as of 21.10.2015 "Some matters of use of domain names by the state bodies in Ukrainian segment of the Internet" (with changes) (hereinafter – Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine № 851):

"Ministries, other central bodies of executive power, Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regional, Kyiv and Sevastopol city state administrations must ensure:

use by officials for official correspondence exclusively of electronic mailboxes located on servers located in the domain zone GOV.UA or .UKR".

Considering above specified, we would like to inform you that the State Tax Service does not use e-mail addresses registered in the "pacaembu.sp.gov.br" domain for official correspondence.

Official registered domain of the State Tax Service is "tax.gov.ua" and therefore all official e-mail addresses of the State Tax Service must necessarily contain domain name "tax.gov.ua" as the second part of the name (after the "@" symbol). 

At the same time, it should be emphasized that there is a real danger of infecting personal computers with viruses distributed by the e-mail. Attachments to the e-mail messages may contain viruses and malware. Characteristic feature of such letters is presence of attached .zip or .rаr format files, as well as files with extension .scr, .exe. Task of attackers is to mislead user into opening the attachment.

Phishing emails contain a link or attached file with archive containing software to gain remote access to the users' computers.

It is recommended not opening attachments in suspicious messages.

Personal cyber hygiene should be observed using the e-mail. Be careful and attentive when opening attachments, even if they come from known recipients. As attackers can mask the sender's address, you should not open attachments received via the e-mail without first confirming that the e-mail was sent by the sender.