HMRC Phishing Scams - still happening

Since 2008 we have been reporting about scam emails, seemingly from HMRC, advising of a tax refund. These are becoming more prevalent and there was even an interview with a representative of HMRC about these on the Radio 4 Money Box programme on 27th September 2009, which emphasised the concern about them (what to do if you receive one of these).

Back in May 2009, one of our clients brought a copy into the office for our attention and these scams are still regularly doing the rounds. More recently, a client received one in early March 2010 (pictured right) which looks very convincing!! there are other examples below which indicate some of the variants, but it is important to note that there are lots of these emails being received and that they take a number of different forms! 

There were some obvious defects within the original email we were advised of, which showed that it was not from HMRC at all, but the scammers are getting better at making these phishing emails look authentic.

Even if HMRC were likely to send out an advice of this type by email (which they are not), the website to which the link in the email points should show you that it is not the HMRC site. (you should be able to see this by hovering your mouse over the link without clicking).
The provided link should not be clicked as it may be designed to download a virus on access. The alternative is that accessing it could lead to what looks like the HMRC website and a series of questions designed to obtain your user name and password, or bank details, for nefarious purposes. There is information on the HMRC website about the current situation relating to these phishing scams, but there also is a short summary of the HMRC advice on what to do if you receive one of these at the bottom of this page.

Examples: 

May 2009

The original scam email had spelling and grammatical errors which made it easier to identify as a phoney.

02 July 2009

Another client  had a similar email but somewhat more sophisticated. It purported to have come from taxcredits@hmrc.co.uk and asked for a form to be filled in and returned. Some of the errors have been corrected but the phrase "Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted" still looks a bit odd!.

Do be wary of these scams, they are intended to get you to part with your personal information like bank details, passwords, secure words (e.g. mother's maiden name) that you use. If you do decide to phone HMRC it would be worth checking for a phone number on the HMRC website rather than assume that the number shown on the email is genuine - who knows who might be answering your call otherwise.

17 September 2009    What to do if you receive one

There is an increasing number of these emails being seen by our clients so keep on your guard. Whilst the originals that we saw back in May 2009 contained obvious flaws, more recently the scammers have got better at it and the emails look more plausible.

One of our clients has asked if there is any action that should be taken with new examples of these emails that he receives, (he has very sensibly been deleting them up to now). Having passed the information on to him it seemed a good idea to reproduce the official HMRC advice that we received recently on the subject, so here it is:

"HMRC would never contact you to disclose personal information. If you received an email requesting personal information or payment of tax, or suggesting that you are due a tax rebate, please take the following action:

• do not click on any links included in the email;
• send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk then delete it;
• if you suspect that your security may have been compromised, run your anti-virus and anti-spyware software applications to check your hard drives for infections"

So, do be wary, and if you have any doubts, especially if you think your information may have already been compromised, contact HMRC.