As we know HMRC is an easy target for scammers, the year never seems to pass by without one employee or someone you know telling you HMRC have contacted them about a tax rebate. According to research undertaken by McAfee in 2019, 18% of the British population either fell to a scammer or knew someone who did.
HMRC have even implemented what is known as “Domain-based Message Authentication” this does enable internet service providers to identify and prevent fraudulent emails from reaching your inbox, and yet they still do.
There are various ways in which a scammer will make contact and as we enter the run up to the year-end and have just passed the deadline for self-assessment submissions. The scammers will start their campaign to entice people into believing they are due to some form of tax relief.
Beware the “phishing” email, texts or phone calls. What you should remember is this, unless you have a Personal Tax Account (PTA) the only way HMRC have of contacting you is by post. Even if you have set up a PTA HMRC still do everything by post except pay a genuine refund into your bank account. Remember, you will never receive an email about a refund or even a rebate from HMRC if you do you should report it to: phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing
Unfortunately, it is not just HMRC who have fallen victim to the scammers, but organisations such as BT, Amazon and Sky. The scammers are difficult to stop and have become devious, as somehow they manage to change their telephone number every time they call. If you have a phone that blocks numbers it will make very little difference to the calling scammer. Another trick they have is voice-activated messaging, the phone rings you pick up and the line is quiet, you say ‘hello’ and suddenly there is a message informing you of action that is to be taken on your respective account.
