Phishing warning from HMRC following tax rebate emails
UK taxpayers are being warned to be vigilant for phishing emails arriving in their inbox following the discovery of a scam by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
The organisation has become aware of emails being sent to British taxpayers advising them that they are entitled to a tax rebate.
In order to claim it, they are advised to follow a link to the HMRC website, where they should fill in their credit or debit card details so that their rebate can be paid to the associated account.
However, the link does not actually lead to the HMRC website - instead, like in other phishing attacks, the site that loads is a close copy of the original operated by the spammers.
Those who hand over their card details can expect to see their account drained of funds by the fraudsters.
HMRC Online and Digital director Joan Wood says: "We currently only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund by writing in the post.
"We don't use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances."
Anyone who does receive what they believe is a malicious email from HMRC can forward it to the organisation to check - and is advised to delete it from their inbox immediately after it has been forwarded.
Use the Myfinances.co.uk comparison tables to find the best deal on all types of insurance
- Tags:
- hmrc ,
- news ,
- phishing ,
- tax ,
- tax rebates
Comments
Newsletter sign up