Fraud and scams warning from HMRC
By DeskDemon
Fraudsters are sending out high volumes of emails supposedly sent from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) offering tax rebates, warns HMRC.
These emails may contain the HMRC logo and can request information such as login, bank and credit cards details.
There are many email addresses being utilised by fraudsters, some of which are shown below:-
- notify2@hrms.co.uk
- refundtax@hmrc.gov.co.uk
- TaxRefund@hmrc.gov.uk
- service@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
- claims@hmrc.direct.gov.uk
- notice@hmrc.gov.uk
- hmrc@hmrc.gov.uk
- admin@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
- info@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
- no-reply@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk
- refund@hmrc.gov.uk
- The padlock - when you log on to HMRC Online Services you are always in a 'secure session' - which is shown by the padlock in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser.
- Your name - fraudulent emails are not normally addressed to you personally, they can be missing addressee details or contain something vague such as 'Dear valued customer'.
- The sender - HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was formed on the 18 April 2005 following the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise departments. Those former departmental names no longer exist. Recent fraud attempts have used the following fake departmental names.
- Embedded links - the email may include a link that you are asked to follow to take you to a website. Following the link takes you to a site that may look genuine, but it is most probably a fake. In the email, if you hover your mouse pointer over the link it will show the real address you will be directed to.
If you think you have been scammed
If you have good cause to suspect that your personal details have been stolen by fraudsters either by email or on the Internet, you should report the incident to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), via their abuse hotline (eg abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@aol.com etc). They are in a position to close down sites that are found to be bogus.
Anything that relates to HMRC and HMRC business should be forwarded to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk for further investigation.
Examples of fraudulent emails can be found at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm
