Email from the taxman is Gateway to disaster

Mrs D. I. P. writes: Last year I received an email, apparently from Revenue & Customs, saying I was due a tax rebate of £193, and to receive it I had to set up a Government Gateway account on the internet. I did this, and finally received a refund cheque. This year the same thing happened, and I was told by email that I was owed £221.58, but this time no cheque has arrived. I tried phoning the tax office, but the person I spoke to said it never contacted people by email. It was therefore a scam.

THE person you spoke to is absolutely right. Advice from Revenue head office is: ‘HMRC will never use texts or emails to tell you about a tax rebate or penalty, or ask for personal or payment information.’

The badly worded email you received is definitely not from any tax office – even the word ‘amount’ is spelt wrong. It says you are ‘eligible to receive a tax return of £221.58’.

But a tax return is a form you complete, declaring income and claiming tax relief. It is not the same thing as a tax refund.

If you had clicked on the email’s link to what it claimed to be your Government Gateway account, you might have unleashed a virus, or been asked for bank details, which could be misused. Or you might have been told that you had to pay some sort of fee up-front.

The only mystery is you say you received a similar email last year, followed by a genuine tax refund. It is likely this is a coincidence.

That refund arrived by cheque and had nothing to do with registering at any Government website.