Beware bogus emails from your taxman

CROOKS are being blocked from duping victims into handing over their bank details by sending them emails that appear to be from the taxman.

The Government has launched a major crackdown on online criminals that impersonate official email addresses to lure savers into handing over financial information.

Criminals have been sending fake emails from HM Revenue and Customs, which end with gov.uk, which is the sign-off used by all government departments.

The emails invite recipients to claim a tax refund by replying with their bank details but instead this information is used to raid the customer’s bank account.

Now spooks at the National Cyber Security Centre are targeting the criminals with clever techniques, which allow them to identify the rogue emails while they are still in cyberspace.

The centre can then block them before they hit victims’ email inboxes, meaning no one is in any danger of being ripped-off.

Ciaran Martin, chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, says these tactics had stopped crooks from sending out 58,000 emails from a fake Government address taxrefund@gov.uk. The criminals had now given up sending these messages, he said.