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Don't Fall for HMRC Scammers

The blossom is on the trees, the birds are singing and we’ve successfully navigated a transfer from one tax year to the next. For one class of fraudsters, that only means one thing; the time is right to ramp up the HMRC tax refund scam. 

Typically sent out by email or text, the tax refund scam aims to get individuals and businesses either to hand over vital banking information or provide unwitting access to their computers. Messages typically talk about a refund of tax being due before asking recipients to either click on a link or download a form in order to process the payment.

HMRC say they will never send notifications by email about tax rebates or refunds and will never ask for personal or financial information when sending text messages. Examples of scam messages can be found on the HMRC website which is kept updated as new fraudulent contacts come to their attention.

This year HMRC are particularly warning young people who are more likely to be targeted via text messages to mobiles. Last spring HMRC say they received 250,000 reports of scam texts sent to mobiles and if that number was reported the actual number of scam attempts is likely to be far higher. The Head of Customer Services at HMRC, Angela MacDonald said:

"If you receive one of these emails or texts, don't respond and report it to HMRC so that more online criminals are stopped in their tracks."