We already have more than our fair share of adversity to deal with at present, don’t let criminals add to your woes by defrauding you of hard-earned cash resources.
HMRC has recently published a warning to taxpayers about scammers posing as HMRC employees. They said:
Self-Assessment customers should be alert to criminals claiming to be from HMRC.
The department knows that fraudsters use calls, emails or texts to contact customers. In the last 12 months, HMRC has responded to more than 846,000 referrals of suspicious HMRC contact from the public and reported over 15,500 malicious web pages to internet service providers to be taken down. Almost 500,000 of the referrals from the public offered bogus tax rebates.
HMRC offer the following tips to spot a tax scam. It could be a scam if it:
- is unexpected
- offers a refund, tax rebate or grant
- asks for personal information like bank details
- is threatening
- tells you to transfer money
Clients in receipt of similar requests, either online or by telephone, should call us so that we can check if the contact is genuine or fraudulent.
Other readers should not respond to any request received by email, text or a direct call. In particular, do not divulge any personal data. Simply access the GOV.UK website and search for HMRC’s published contact numbers. Call HMRC and explain the request you have received and ask if they could check to see if it is genuine.
