A NEW DVLA car tax scam Attack.Phishing is doing the rounds online which could see motorists duped Attack.Phishing into entering sensitive information and being ripped off by criminals . Here ’ s what to do if you receive this message . DVLA car tax scam are not a new thing and every couple of months a new one does the rounds . Criminals pose as Attack.Phishing the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in a bid to extort motorists of their cash by requesting this bank details . These crooks usually try to achieve this by threatening a monetary punishment of some sort or in other cases by stating that the driver is entitled to a refund . The problem for some motorists could fall Attack.Phishing for the fraudulent messages especially as they often look fairly professional and can even contain the logo of the DVLA Motorists Jason Price , however , was not fooled Attack.Phishing by the latest attempt by fraudsters trying to get him to hand over his details . Mr Price tweeted a link to the email that he received Attack.Phishing from the criminal pretending to be Attack.Phishing the DVLA . The subject of the email is “ You are not up-to-date with your vehicle tax ” followed by a bogus item reference number , which presumably is to , in some way , make the email seem more legitimate . The contents of the email claim that the driver is not up to date with their vehicle tax and states that this is their ‘ last chance ’ to pay the remainder of the fee . It reads : “ Our records show that you are not up-to-date with your vehicle tax . “ This is a reminder ( V11 ) and a ‘ last chance ’ warning letter from us . “ Tax your car , motorcycle or other vehicle today to avoid unpleasant consequences . “ You must tax your vehicle even if you don ’ t have to pay anything , for example if you ’ re exempt because you ’ re disabled . “ You ’ ll need to meet all the legal obligations for drivers before you can drive. ” It also states that “ You can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not renew your car tax ” The DVLA has issued numerous warnings to customers in the past about how it will never contact the motorist in this way . “ # SCAM WARNING : We 're reminding customers that the only official place to find our services and information is on http : //GOV.UK “ Cyber scams are common so we want to help our customers to spot fraudulent activity. ” If you receive an email or message like this you should either report it or instantly delete it and not click the link in the message . If you ’ re unsure on the validity of a message then you can ring the licensing agency .

Google has stopped Wednesday ’ s clever email phishing scheme Attack.Phishing , but the attack may very well make a comeback . One security researcher has already managed to replicate it , even as Google is trying to protect users from such attacks . “ It looks exactly like Attack.Phishing the original spoof Attack.Phishing , ” said Matt Austin , director of security research at Contrast Security . The phishing scheme Attack.Phishing -- which may have circulated Attack.Phishing to 1 million Gmail users -- is particularly effective because it fooled Attack.Phishing users with a dummy app that looked like Attack.Phishing Google Docs . Recipients who received Attack.Phishing the email were invited to click a blue box that said “ Open in Docs. ” Those who did were brought to an actual Google account page that asks them to handover Gmail access to the dummy app . While fooling Attack.Phishing users with spoofed emails is nothing new , Wednesday ’ s attack involved an actual third-party app made with real Google processes . The company ’ s developer platform can enable anyone to create web-based apps . In this case , the culprit chose to name the app “ Google Docs ” in an effort to trick Attack.Phishing users . The search company has shut down the attack by removing the app . It ’ s also barred other developers from using “ Google ” in naming their third-party apps . More traditional phishing email schemes Attack.Phishing can strike by tricking Attack.Phishing users into giving up their login credentials . However , Wednesday ’ s attack takes a different approach and abuses what ’ s known as the OAuth protocol , a convenient way for internet accounts to link with third-party applications . Through OAuth , users don ’ t have to hand over any password information . They instead grant permission so that one third-party app can connect to their internet account , at say , Google , Facebook or Twitter . But like any technology , OAuth can be exploited . Back in 2011 , one developer even warned that the protocol could be used in a phishing attack Attack.Phishing with apps that impersonate Attack.Phishing Google services . Nevertheless , OAuth has become a popular standard used across IT . CloudLock has found that over 276,000 apps use the protocol through services like Google , Facebook and Microsoft Office 365 . For instance , the dummy Google Docs app was registered to a developer at eugene.pupov @ gmail.com -- a red flag that the product wasn ’ t real . However , the dummy app still managed to fool Attack.Phishing users because Google ’ s own account permission page never plainly listed the developer ’ s information , unless the user clicks the page to find out , Parecki said . “ I was surprised Google didn ’ t show much identifying information with these apps , ” he said . “ It ’ s a great example of what can go wrong. ” Rather than hide those details , all of it should be shown to users , Parecki said . Austin agreed , and said apps that ask for permission to Gmail should include a more blatant warning over what the user is handing over . “ I ’ m not on the OAuth hate bandwagon yet . I do see it as valuable , ” Austin said . “ But there are some risks with it. ” Fortunately , Google was able to quickly foil Wednesday ’ s attack , and is introducing “ anti-abuse systems ” to prevent it from happening again . Users who might have been affected can do a Google security checkup to review what apps are connected to their accounts . The company ’ s Gmail Android app is also introducing a new security feature to warn users about possible phishing attempts Attack.Phishing . It 's tempting Attack.Phishing to install apps and assume they 're safe . But users and businesses need to be careful when linking accounts to third-party apps , which might be asking for more access than they need , Cloudlock 's Kaya said . `` Hackers have a headstart exploiting this attack , '' she said . `` All companies need to be thinking about this . ''