Tax season is upon us and, as with every year, we're seeing tax scammers rearing their heads.

Below, we have an example of a tax scam currently in circulation along with some suggestions for avoiding these kinds of attacks.

An IRS W-9 tax form scam

A Form W-9 is a form you fill in to confirm certain personal details with the IRS. Name, address, and Tax Identification Number are all things you can expect to fill in on one of these forms.

In this case, the Form W-9 is being used as a lure for people to download something sinister. Our Senior Director of Threat Intelligence, Jerome Segura, found an email being sent out with the title of “IRS Tax Forms W-9” which appears to have been sent from “IRS Online Center”. The email, which contains an attachment and very little text, looks like this:

At least three children are dead after gunfire erupted at a Tennessee Christian school on Monday, officials said, adding the gunman was killed by police.

The "active shooter" incident unfolded at The Covenant School on Burton Hills Boulevard in Nashville when officers "engaged" the attacker, police said.

Three "pediatric patients were transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, all having suffered gunshot wounds," Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson John Howser said. "All three were pronounced dead after arrival."

Shortly after police announced the shooter was dead, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also said “there is no current threat to public safety.”

Students of the school, which serves pre-school students through sixth graders, were being bused to Woodmont Baptist Church, two miles away from campus, to be reunited with their parents.

Webmaster addition: What a shame the school staff could not return fire.

Italy said the operations of its navy and coast guard in the Mediterranean are obstructed by NGOs as the flow of migrants to the country grows, local media reported on Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said these concerns should be taken seriously.

Rescue ship Louise Michel was detained over the weekend in the Mediterranean port city of Lampedusa by Greek authorities.

"It is Italy that is under attack, not the NGOs,” said Salvini, adding that “immigration to Italy cannot be regulated by private bodies funded by foreign countries.”

The White House issued a statement of administration policy Monday, stating that President Biden would veto Republicans' sweeping energy package in its current form.

According to the memo, the Biden administration "strongly opposes" the bill — titled the Lower Energy Costs Act — because it would work to counteract the administration's own agenda promoting green energy sources over fossil fuel alternatives. The memo claimed that the GOP legislation proposes to replace pro-consumer policies with a "thinly veiled license to pollute," echoing criticism from top House Democrats.

"It would raise costs for American families by repealing household energy rebates and rolling back historic investments to increase access to cost-lowering clean energy technologies," the White House statement added. "Instead of protecting American consumers, it would pad oil and gas company profits – already at record levels – and undercut our public health and environment."

A federal judge went scorched earth on President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice for trying to force his hand in a major immigration case.

District Judge Drew Tipton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued an injunction last year saying that Biden’s administration couldn’t use any of the new immigration rules it implemented when Biden took office. Tipton gave the DOJ a deadline to make an appeal of his ruling to a higher court before forcing the Biden administration to play by Trump’s rules.

Tipton smacked down the Biden administration again by ruling against the DOJ’s motion to transfer the immigration policy case to a different court, adding that the administration’s claim that the Republican-led states that sued had engaged in “judge shopping” that would erode public faith in the courts,” Reuters reported.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, slammed the Biden administration on Sunday for continuing the obstruct the committee’s investigation into Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified materials while not in office.

Warner made the remarks on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” with host Margaret Brennan when asked if there has been any update on the matter since January.

“We need more information about these documents,” Warner said. “And, more importantly, we need to make sure that what the intel community has done to mitigate the harm. And we’re still in conversations with the Justice Department.”

A chemical spill into a tributary of the Delaware River has put nerves on edge in Philadelphia, although officials have walked back an initial alert urging residents to buy bottled water.

On Friday, a pipe broke at the Trinseo PLC chemical plant that sent about 8,100 gallons of acrylic polymer solution, a latex emulsion, into Otter Creek north of the city, according to The New York Times.

The creek flows into the Delaware River, which is tapped for drinking water by communities in four states that serve about 14 million people.

Massive protests have erupted across Israel tonight after PM Netanyhau fired his Defense Minister, a day after he called on the Israeli leader to halt a planned judicial overhaul that has fiercely divided the country.

As a reminder, Netanyahu and his allies say the plan will restore a balance between the judicial and executive branches and rein in what they see as an interventionist court with liberal sympathies. But critics say the constellation of laws will remove the checks and balances in Israel’s democratic system and concentrate power in the hands of the governing coalition.

Gallant’s dismissal signaled that Netanyahu will move ahead this week with the overhaul plan, which has sparked mass protests, angered military and business leaders and raised concerns among Israel’s allies.

Webmaster addition:

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that President Biden is committed to staying in Syria following a series of attacks on US bases and US airstrikes in the country.

“Here’s what’s not going to change … the mission and ISIS is not going to change. We have under 1,000 troops in Syria that are going after that network, which is, while greatly diminished, still viable and still critical. So we’re going to stay at that task,” Kirby said on CBS News’s Face the Nation.

When asked if President Biden was committed to keeping US troops in Syria, Kirby replied, “That’s right. Absolutely.”

While Kirby says the US mission in Syria is about fighting ISIS, the presence is part of the US effort against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government opposes the occupation of the eastern portion of Syria, which allows the US to control most of Syria’s oil resources. On top of the occupation, the US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria.

Joe Biden didn’t just leave $85 billion dollars worth of U.S. military equipment in his deadly disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan. It was a gift to the Taliban who murdered and maimed our soldiers for years. One of the most embarrassing betrayals ever.

It’s only right for schools to tell parents what they are teaching their kids, isn’t it? Or, if a school is encouraging children to “transition” their genders, the first people to be notified should be their parents, wouldn’t you agree?

Well, if you do, you would be flying in the face of Democrats in Congress. Republicans proposed a law that would require schools to actually communicate with students’ parents. This outraged some of these commies so badly, they melted down.

Fox Business reports that the off-duty pilot stepped in after one of the assigned pilots on a Southwest flight required medical attention mid-flight.

A Southwest Airlines spokesman spoke with Fox Business about Flight 6013 from Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio. This was the flight in question, and it became a lot scarier after it took off when the pilot required some medical attention shortly after takeoff. Someone needed to step in urgently because there was the potential that the entire flight could be in danger if there weren’t someone to step in and make sure the flight could make it safely to the ground.

In the aftermath of widespread voter fraud and other irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, several states and localities have clashed over the banning of private funding of election procedures, a tactic that has come to be known as “Zuckerbucks.”

Just The News reports that, despite official government actions to limit or outright ban the practice, one far-left nonprofit group has been working to use loopholes to subvert such laws and send funding to Democratic counties. The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), a group which spent nearly $350 million into local elections offices in the 2020 election cycle, has launched a project called the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence (AEE). The CTCL received most of its funding from Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, hence the nickname “Zuckerbucks.”

The AEE will give $80 million over the course of five years to select counties and municipalities “to envision, support, and celebrate excellence in U.S. election administration,” as part of its “Centers for Election Excellence” program.

On March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will start deploying its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Construction of designated storage facilities for the weapons is planned to be completed by July 1. The decision to transfer nuclear weapons to Belarus was made after Minsk issued a formal request, essentially mirroring Washington DC’s nuclear sharing agreements with several NATO member states. And while the decision was officially made after the United Kingdom announced it would supply depleted uranium munitions to the Kiev regime, the actual reasoning might have to do with much more sinister plans by the United States.

Namely, Warsaw and Washington DC have been floating the idea of transferring some of the US nuclear weapons stockpiled in Europe to Poland. The move has been mentioned several times in recent years, including in early October last year, when Polish President Andrzej Duda mentioned it in an interview with Gazeta Polska. The US has nuclear sharing agreements with the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Turkey, with approximately 100 (mainly air-launched) tactical nuclear weapons deployed in all five countries. Greece also took part in the program, but discontinued its participation in 2001, although it’s widely believed Athens still keeps the necessary storage facilities functional.

"The most hated sort [of moneymaking], and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural use of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term usury which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money, because the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of making money this is the most unnatural." -- Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

"The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of a pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this world would be a happier and better world to live in. But if you wish to remain slaves of the Bankers and pay for the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits." -- Sir Josiah Stamp, President of the Bank of England in the 1920s, the second richest man in Britain

"The Bank, its property and assets and all deposits and other funds entrusted to it shall be immune in time of peace and in time of war from any measure such as expropriation, requisition, seizure, confiscation, prohibition or restriction of gold or currency export or import, and any other measure." -- Article 10, Instrument of Foundation, Bank of International Settlements

"When the world around the IMF goes downhill, we thrive. We become extremely active because we lend money, we earn interest and charges and all the rest of it, and the institution does well. When the world goes well and we've had years of growth, as was the case back in 2006 and 2007, the IMF doesn't do so well both financially and otherwise." -- Christine Lagarde

A Nato spokesperson said on Sunday:

Nato is vigilant, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own.

Russia’s reference to Nato’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. Nato allies act with full respect of their international commitments. Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty.