‘TAX REFUND’ SCAM ALERT
These are just vile attempts by pond life to steal money from your good readers A (REAL) REVENUE OFFICIAL
TAXPAYERS are being warned to ignore a new blight of emails from fraudsters passing themselves off as HM Revenue & Customs and inviting them to claim refunds for overpaid tax.
The fraudulent ‘phishing’ emails or texts are designed to trick people into giving key details about their bank accounts which are then used by the criminals to gain access and empty them.
On Friday, a Revenue official, given copies by The Mail on Sunday of the latest phishing emails doing the rounds, described them ‘as 100 per cent rank’ and ‘vile attempts by pond life to steal money from your good readers’.
In the year to this March, the Revenue blocked more than eight million phishing emails and took down nearly 14,000 fraudulent websites. But the fraudsters are nothing if not persistent.
Traditionally, they target two key times of the year: July when people are renewing their entitlement to tax credits and December in the run-up to the end of January deadline for completing selfassessment tax returns and paying any tax owed.
Worryingly, their emails are more authentic than ever before. In the past, some of them were littered with spelling mistakes and compiled so poorly that most recipients knew they were not genuine straightaway.
But not as much the current ones. Reader James Anderson, a 72-year-old retired teacher from Winchester, has received two such scam emails in recent weeks.
Both were from HMRC Tax Refund Services and each promised James a refund – £907.41 first time around and then £1,098.54.
This second email looked as if it could have been official because of its near-perfect rip off of the HM Revenue & Customs logo.
James files a tax return every year and is meticulous about getting his tax affairs in good order, so he was not tempted by either offer. But he says he can see how some people may fall for the bait. He adds: ‘These phishing emails are getting more sophisticated. When someone is told they are due a refund and they are given details of the local “tax credit officer” and their “tax refund ID number” you can understand why some bite.’
James believes the Revenue should come down on these fraudsters ‘like a ton of bricks’ and close them down. ‘I get the impression it is not doing enough and doesn’t see this fraudulent activity as its problem. But it is.
‘We are being pushed all the time to both pay our taxes and file our tax returns online. So it should do everything possible to keep fraudulent emails out of our inboxes. I see it as a law and order issue. The Revenue must ensure law and order is maintained.’
The Revenue, which received more complaints in the last tax year than any since the 2008 financial crisis, says it never notifies taxpayers by text or email of a tax rebate. It also would never use such communication tools to request personal or financial details.
On Friday, it said it took taxpayers’ data security ‘extremely seriously’. It also confirmed it was working with law enforcement agencies worldwide ‘to bring down the criminals behind these scams’.