Bogus “Payroll Declined” emails deliver malware

A malicious email campaign impersonating the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) – a service offered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury that allows taxpayers to make tax payments either online or via telephone – has been recently spotted by GFI:

With “Payroll Declined” in the subject line, the email’s goal is to spur recipients into verifying the reason behind this and to thoughtlessly follow the offered link.

As can be expected, such an action will likely result with a malware infection. In this case, the malware served is the Cridex info-stealing Trojan – not a good thing to have on any computer, but especially not on one that contains personal information about the firms’ employees.