The Coronavirus phishing scams have only gotten more aggressive and targeted now than ever before, InfoSecurity Magazine reports. Now researchers at Griffin Law are tracking self-employed people being targeted with established COVID-19 related phishing emails.

According to Griffin Law, the scam begins with a text message purporting to be from HMRC informing the recipient they are due a tax refund which can be applied for online via an official looking site that uses HMRC branding and is entitled “Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance and support.”

The bogus site then asks for several pieces of the user’s sensitive information before also requesting their passport number as verification, a new aspect of the scam previously discovered by Griffin Law.

Chris Ross, SVP, Barracuda Networks, warned that cyber-criminals will continue to exploit any situation to harvest financial data from individuals and see the national emergency as the perfect opportunity to fool vulnerable victims into handing over personal information.

“Security awareness is key within the workforce, and it’s vital that all employees are trained about how these schemes operate as well as how SMS can be exploited as part of a wider phishing scheme.”