Warning of fraud attempts

Time and again, fraudsters try to obtain personal information from citizens, e.g. by sending fraudulent emails, text messages or letters in the name of the tax authorities. The sender may be ELSTER, the tax office or the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt), for example. In these messages, recipients are usually asked to open an attached file that is supposedly a tax assessment notice or an invoice. Details of the individual letters can be found on the BZSt website - Warning of attempted fraud.

• The tax administration only sends you notifications, but never the actual tax data or invoices in the form of an email attachment.
• Fraudsters are currently trying to obtain information from citizens, particularly by email or using fake websites with an ELSTER reference. They send e-mails in the name of ELSTER with titles such as "Dunning procedure initiated", "Notification of your current crypto holdings", "Income tax refund", "Refund ready for payment", "Official notification on income tax".
• Never open attachments that you are not sure come from a trustworthy source.
• The tax authorities will never request information such as your tax number, bank account details, credit card numbers, PIN or the answer to your security question in an e-mail.
• Do not click on an embedded link in an e-mail if you have any doubts that the e-mail originates from the tax authorities.
• General tips on how to use the Internet and current warnings can be found on the website of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).

There is also a risk of attempted fraud when using social media.
This manifests itself in particular in the use of fake accounts using similar names and logos in the name of the financial administration.
We would like to point out that the official name of our account is "zukunft.finanzenBW".

The Landesoberkasse Baden-Württemberg would like to point out that an increasing number of fraudulent cost invoices are currently in circulation.

These invoices can often be recognized by the fact that no contact details (telephone number, e-mail address) are given and a foreign bank account is specified to which payment is to be made.

Please check all invoices carefully and be particularly careful if payment information appears unusual.

If you are not sure whether an invoice is genuine or not, please contact LOK (poststelle@lok.bwl.de; poststelle-metzingen@lok.bwl.de) before paying.

Your security and the protection of your data are important to us.