In the last year HMRC have confirmed they have removed over 20,000 fake and malicious websites, however they were clear that people need to stay alert to the threat from website fraudsters.
In a recent announcement HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) confirmed they had requested a record 20,750 malicious sites to be taken down over the past 12 months, an increase of 29% on the previous year. Although this is a record number of sites closed down, the warning still remains that there are millions of people still at risk of losing substantial amounts of money to online fraud through fake websites.
The cutting-edge technology being used by the government to tackle cyber-crime and target fraud has shown great results, but a spokesman says the public needs to be aware and continue reporting phishing attempts to allow HMRC to defeat the criminals.
The public need to consider that genuine companies and organisations would not contact customers asking for personal information such as passwords or pin numbers. The public should be wary of any such requests and not give out private information, click on links or download attachments they’re not expecting. The most common type of scam is the “tax refund” email and SMS, but HMRC does not offer tax refunds by text message or by email.
Suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC can be forwarded to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and texts to 60599. Any suspicious calls can be reported to Action Fraud through its call centre on 0300 123 2040 or through its online fraud reporting tool.
HMRC received and responded to nearly one million phishing referrals in tax year 2017/187 and reduced spoofed phishing texts by 90% through its new technology.
Treasury minister Mel Stride said criminals prey on the public and abuse their trust in government. “HMRC is cracking down harder than ever, as these latest figures show. But we need the public’s help as well. By doing the right thing and reporting suspicious messages you will not only protect yourself, you will protect other potential victims,” he said.
