IBM X-Force research: Cybercrime riding tax season tides

Cybercrime is a year-round profession, but there’s no question that fraudsters take advantage of seasonal events such as gift-giving season in the winter and tax filing deadlines in the spring. The most common fraud types that ensue this time of year are fraudulent tax returns on the consumer side and W-2 fraud on the business side.

IBM X-Force researchers recently looked at spam traps for a glimpse into the rise in tax-themed spam, and the numbers show a startling near-400 percent growth in spam volume of this type. While spam may just seem like a nuisance in your inbox, the repercussions go further, as we see from the specific cybercrime activity on the Dark Web for the sale of tax data.