{"id":13072,"date":"2026-01-21T11:33:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/?p=13072"},"modified":"2026-01-21T11:33:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T11:33:27","slug":"austria-vat-authority-warns-against-fraudulent-e-mail-messages-with-fake-notices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/austria-vat-authority-warns-against-fraudulent-e-mail-messages-with-fake-notices\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria – VAT Authority warns against fraudulent e-mail messages with fake notices"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Austrian\u00a0Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF)\u00a0issued a critical warning regarding an increased number of fraudulent email messages targeting both citizens and entrepreneurs. These sophisticated phishing attempts use fake notices to manipulate recipients into making unauthorised payments or revealing sensitive personal data.<\/p>\n

Tactics Used in fraudulent messages:<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Fake Payment Reminders:
\nRecipients receive emails with attached “official” payment reminders for outstanding tax debts. These notices urge the victim to transfer funds to foreign bank accounts.<\/p>\n

– Company Data Updates:
\nSome messages target businesses, requesting they “check and update” company data on the\u00a0FinanzOnline\u00a0portal via a malicious link.<\/p>\n

How to Protect Yourself
\n<\/strong>Information from the Federal Ministry of Finance is generally provided in the form of\u00a0digitally signed\u00a0notices and is sent by post or to the FinanzOnline Databox. The Federal Ministry of Finance never asks entrepreneurs and citizens to transmit personal data such as passwords, credit card data or account information. Businesses are therefore recommended the following precautions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do Not Click Links:\u00a0Official government agencies like the BMF do not request sensitive information or payment via random emails or text messages.<\/li>\n
  2. Verify via Official Channels:\u00a0Always access services directly through the\u00a0official BMF website\u00a0or the authenticated\u00a0FinanzOnline\u00a0portal rather than using links provided in a message.<\/li>\n
  3. Check for Red Flags:\u00a0Be wary of urgent deadlines, threats of legal action, or sender addresses that do not match official government domains<\/li>\n
  4. Delete and Report:\u00a0The BMF advises that the best course of action is to delete suspicious messages without responding. Genuine official notices will always be delivered to your FinanzOnline “Data Box” or by post.<\/li>\n<\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Austrian\u00a0Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF)\u00a0issued a critical warning regarding an increased number of fraudulent email messages targeting both citizens and entrepreneurs. These sophisticated phishing attempts use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239137924,"featured_media":13073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1387],"tags":[1450],"class_list":["post-13072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-vat-update","tag-austria-vat-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/at_fraud_1140x360.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfNysa-3oQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239137924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13076,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13072\/revisions\/13076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meridianglobalservices.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}