Fraudsters are sending British taxpayers thousands of scam emails promising bogus tax refunds.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is urging taxpayers not to click on links promising tax refunds as the details are only sent by post – and the fraudsters are looking to capture bank and credit card details.
Some taxpayers have seen their banks drained of cash in minutes after responding to the fake messages, while others have had their online identities stolen and sold by gangs overseas.
Almost 25,000 reported receiving a suspicious email from HMRC in the last three months of 2013.
During the year, HMRC reckons almost 100,000 scam phishing emails were reported by taxpayers – up 47% on the year before.
Web sites closed down
A special team of online investigators tracked down and closed 178 web sites run by scammers deliberately trying to trick taxpayers into handing over their financial information.
Around 1,500 phishing web sites were closed by HMRC in 2013 in places as far apart as the United States, Russia and China.
Gareth Lloyd, Head of Digital Security at HMRC, said: “HMRC never sends emails to taxpayers about refunds or other financial matters, we always send the information in a letter.
“We can and do close these sham web sites down, but they can spring up within hours and carry on tricking taxpayers. We have close relationships with police and other law enforcement agencies worldwide and work with them to target these crooks.
“HMRC never requests taxpayers to give confidential or personal information like passwords, credit card or bank account details by email.”
Spotting a scam email
Lloyd explained one giveaway in scam emails is the fraudsters want an immediate response, so include terms like ‘you only have three days to reply’ or ‘urgent action required’. Most HMRC letters give taxpayers at least 30 days to reply.
HMRC suggests that taxpayers receiving scam emails should:
- Check advice on the HMRC web site where examples of fake emails are listed;
- Forward suspicious emails to HMRC at [email protected] and delete the message from any email account;
- Avoid clicking on websites, links or attachments contained in suspicious emails;
- Anyone responding to one of these emails should forward the email and disclosed details to [email protected]
The HMRC web site lists dozens of false email addresses fraudsters use to send their scam messages and several examples of the most frequently received messages.