The latest rip off scam by clever fraudsters involves the rapidly approaching January 31st self assessment tax deadline. It is likely to run after that too with the target being people who are expecting a genuine tax refund.
HM Revenue and Customs released a statement recently warning us about this scam and calling it ‘the most sophisticated phishing scam that we have encountered.’
It involves an email pretending to be from HMRC itself and asking for your bank or credit card details so your rebate can be paid out. HMRC warns that falling for this scam could have dire consequences.
Obviously the bogus tax officials will attempt to clear out any bank account you give them the details for, equally as scary is the fact that your details could be passed on to organised crime gangs. The resulting identity theft can result in a massive hit to your credit rating. Something we know can be deadly in our game.
HMRC are very concerned about this and are working closely with police in the UK and internationally to close these fraudsters down, with some success. Scam networks in Austria, Mexico and the USA have been stopped. However, the danger remains.
Leslie Strathie HMRC Chief Executive warns us “We never use emails, telephone calls or external companies in these circumstances. We only ever contact customers who are due a refund by post.”
If we remember this and don’t click on any web links in emails we don’t trust then all should be well.
If you do happen to receive one of these scam emails HMRC would be very interested to see it so do the right thing and forward it on to them.
