CRACKDOWN ON THE FAKE TAXMEN
Hammond to target phone lines used by gangs after Mail exposé
THe Chancellor yesterday pledged to crack down on telephone fraud after the Mail exposed a fake taxman scam targeting 10,000 Britons a day.
Philip Hammond said that no one should have to endure such ‘fear and intimidation’ in their own home.
We had revealed how criminals posing as HMRC officials select victims from the BT online phone directory and threaten them with jail unless they repay non-existent tax debts.
Mr Hammond tweeted a copy of yesterday’s Mail front page about the swindlers, who pocket £1million a year from UK residents while operating from Ahmedabad in India.
And he promised to do more to stop the scammers using special software to buy British phone numbers – and even copying the HMRC phone number – to make their fraud appear genuine. Mr Hammond said the Government planned to remove phone lines used in scams as soon as possible, with 450 numbers already closed down and more to come.
Mel Stride, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, also pledged to bring fraudsters to justice wherever they operate.
He said: ‘These scammers think they can get away with it because they are calling from overseas. But they should think again: my message to them is that wherever you are, we will find you and put an end to your grubby schemes.’
However, the pledge got off to a slow start after it emerged that UK police were yet to contact officers in Ahmedabad about the HMRC fraud gang. Police in the city have started an investigation – but only after the Mail contacted them directly ahead of publication with a dossier of details about the scammers.
Undercover Mail reporters infiltrated the 18- strong gang at its fake call centre in Ahmedabad. The fraudsters, who boasted they did not fear being tracked down by British authorities, select victims at random from the online BT phone directory. Following a script, they warn about impending court proceedings for unpaid tax and demand immediate payment.
Targets are told they face arrest and imprisonment if they do not pay immediately. HMRC received 60,000 reports of landline repayment fraud cases in the six months to January – 360 per cent up on the previous half-year. However, not all the victims will have come forward. More than one in ten frauds reported in the UK involves Indian call centres and over half originate abroad, according to Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber reporting centre.
Former Met Police fraud investigator James Mills said: ‘Britons are sitting ducks for foreign-based fraudsters. It’s hard work and very time- consuming to investigate scam call centres overseas which are hard to trace.
‘There’s a lot of bureaucracy to get access to these places and there isn’t the appetite or the
resource to do it. Sadly, saying the money has gone overseas is often used as an excuse for closing a fraud inquiry.
‘For fraudsters it’s a dream. The rewards are very high and risks are very low.’ Mr Mills, who now runs his own fraud investigation company Requite Solutions, said: ‘It’s not treated as a priority, despite the huge number of victims. Just because it’s hard to do doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try. It can be done if there’s enough effort.’
Gareth Shaw of Which? said: ‘Our analysis shows more than nine in ten cases reported to Action Fraud currently go unsolved.’ An HMRC spokesman said last night: ‘[We] will only ever call you asking for payment on a debt that you are already aware of, either having received a letter about it, or after you’ve told us you owe some tax.’