Cons by fraudsters posing as the taxman to seek sensitive personal info and cash are rocketing.
In the past two years Brits have been bombarded by more than 1.5 million fake emails, calls and texts.
The number of phone scams reported to HMRC soared from 58,538 in 2018 to 195,720 last year.
Email rip-offs over the period fell from 841,805 to 333,857, text cons rose from 36,950 to 57,579.
Chris Ross, of security experts Barracuda Networks, said people needed greater awareness of these increasingly complex scams that hunt, or phish, for information.
He said: "It's no surprise criminals see impersonating HMRC through fraudulent phishing schemes as an easy route to securing cash payouts from their unsuspecting victims."
He said the sophisticated use of calls, texts and emails to dupe individuals was most disturbing.
Mr Ross added: "It's also important to recognise the lengths these criminals will go to trick entrepreneurs, finance workers and vulnerable or elderly people into handing over PIN codes or transferring money to false accounts."
