"Economic Stimulus" Fraud. There's a new scam making the rounds of the Internet now, an attempt to steal from people's bank accounts by using the "economic stimulus" rebates Americans are to receive as bait to get people to reveal their banking information to thieves.
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An email arrives from a forged email address ending in "@irs.gov", with an IRS logo at the top and a message in this form:

Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please click on the link and fill out the form and submit before April 18th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on April 18th, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus Refund, please click here.

© Copyright 2008, Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. All rights reserved.

If you overlook a few oddities, like "President Bush Program" rather than "President Bush's program", "to access Economic" rather than "to access your Economic", and "Refund" rather than "Rebate", you might be tempted to speed the process. But if you hover your cursor over the clickable link, you will see that it does not take you to an IRS website at all. The one I got showed this path: "http://thesalthouse.com/webalizer-old/.secure/.refund.php". To investigate how this fraud then unfolds, in order to tell you, I clicked on that link, but it produced a 404 "Page Not Found" message because someone presumably discovered the fraud and shut that particular page down. But there will be others opened. And others, and others, until and unless we get draconian-tuf with Internet crime.
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As is the case with all crimes for profit, extremely severe punishment is the cure for this social problem: a year in prison for each person such a criminal even attempts to defraud, and if the total number of years is more than 100, DEATH, since no one can be expected to live more than 100 years in prison after being sentenced in adulthood. DEATH would end this and the majority of other scams overnite. And perhaps nothing BUT death will do so, because when people do a cost-benefit analysis, they factor in the likelihood of being caught and tried, and right now that seems to weigh heavily in their favor. But if the other side of the calculation is that if indeed they are caught, they will be KILLED, "likelihood" that they will escape punishment is not the same as "certainty", and if there is a one in 10,000 chance they will indeed be arrested, tried, and then KILLED, by far most people will look for another way to make a living.
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Almost no one gladly dies to make a living.
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So kill them all, every last one of these Internet thieves and hackers who target hundreds or even thousands or tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, and the Internet will be safe. You won't need to pay out your hard-earned money for a firewall nor for updates to an antivirus program. Government will control Internet crime as it controls other crime. And the world will have a rich supply of organs and tissues harvested from Internet criminals chopped up for parts for decent people. Win-win.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 1:44 PM