Tax office warns over rebate scams

180 websites over the past three months were sending out fake tax rebate emails

Taxpayers have been warned to be especially vigilant after a surge in fake phone calls and online fraud attempts by criminals pretending to be the tax office.

HM Revenue and Customs says thieves posing as tax office employees are phoning taxpayers, telling them they are owed a rebate and asking for bank details.

HMRC has also shut down more than 180 websites over the past three months that were sending out fake tax rebate emails as part of organised online "phishing" scams.

“We only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. We never use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. We strongly urge anyone receiving such a phone call not to give any information to the caller, but report it to the police straightaway,” said Chris Hopson, Director of Customer Contact at HMRC.

The increase in recorded fraud attempts is partly due to better reporting of phishing or fraud attempts.

In September last year, a record 83,000 phishing attempts were reported. One day the following month saw an unprecedented 10,000 reports of phishing scams, HMRC said.

Its advice if you receive an email that starts "We have reviewed your tax return and our calculations of your last years accounts a tax refund of XXXX is due" is to -

•        Check the advice published at www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm to see if the email you have received is listed.

•        Forward suspicious emails to HMRC at phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete it from your computer/mail account.

•        Do not click on websites, links contained in suspicious emails or open attachments.