HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have warned Self Assessment customers to be weary of any scammers, who may try and steal money or personal information from unsuspecting individuals.
The warning comes after nearly 800,000 tax-related scams were reported in the last year, and they received nearly 360,000 bogus tax rebate referrals.
In the past year, more than 1,282 phone numbers being used to commit HMRC-related phone scams have been removed from use and there has been 8,561 reported malicious web pages.
READ MORE: HMRC's warning to self-employed workers who claimed SEISS grant
As the department starts to contact customers before the Self Assessment deadline on January 31, 2022, they remind people to remain vigilant against phishing scams.
Malicious emails, phone calls and texts can be mistaken for genuine ones, but can result in your information or money being stolen.
Criminals use emails, phone calls and text messages to try and dupe individuals, and often mimic government messages to make them appear authentic. They want to trick their victims into handing over money or personal or financial information.
Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said: “Never let yourself be rushed. If someone contacts you saying they’re from HMRC, wanting you to urgently transfer money or give personal information, be on your guard. HMRC will also never ring up threatening arrest. Only criminals do that.
“Scams come in many forms. Some threaten immediate arrest for tax evasion, others offer a tax rebate. Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so if you are in any doubt whether the email, phone call or text is genuine, you can check the ‘HMRC scams’ advice on GOV.UK and find out how to report them to us.”
Any suspicious communications can be reported to the HMRC, by forwarding emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599.
Phone calls can also be reported on the gov.uk website.
HMRC has a dedicated team working on cyber and phone crimes. They use innovative technologies to prevent misleading and malicious communications from ever reaching the customer.
Since 2017 these technical controls have prevented 500 million emails from reaching HMRC’s customers. More recently, new controls have prevented 90% of the most convincing SMS messages from reaching the public and controls have been applied to prevent spoofing of most HMRC helpline numbers.
HMRC advice to prevent being scammed
- Take a moment to think before parting with your money or information.
- If a phone call, text or email is unexpected, don’t give out private information or reply, and don’t download attachments or click on links before checking on GOV.UK that the contact is genuine.
- Do not trust caller ID on phones. Numbers can be spoofed.
- Take a moment to think before parting with your money or information.
- If a phone call, text or email is unexpected, don’t give out private information or reply, and don’t download attachments or click on links before checking on GOV.UK that the contact is genuine.
- Do not trust caller ID on phones. Numbers can be spoofed.
Forward suspicious texts claiming to be from HMRC to 60599 and emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk. Report tax scam phone calls on GOV.UK.
Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen victim to a scam, and report it to Action Fraud.
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