- Last year 91k phishing e-mails were reported to HMRC
- HMRC action led to nearly 1,500 websites being closed in 2013
- The taxman says it never contacts people about tax refunds via e-mail
By
Lee Boyce
07:15 EST, 7 February 2014
|
07:15 EST, 7 February 2014
The number of phishing e-mails sent out by fraudsters rocketed 47 per cent in the last three months compared to the same period last year, HM Revenue and Customs has revealed.
The taxman has warned taxpayers not to be caught out by the rise in scammers targeting people via legitimate looking e-mails offering tax rebates in return for bank account or credit card details.
In the three month run-up to last Friday’s tax return
deadline, customers reported 23,247 phishing e-mails to HMRC. Overall, more than 91,000 phishing e-mails were unveiled last year.
Big target: Fraudsters are targeting taxpayers via e-mails offering bogus tax rebates
HMRC says anyone responding to this type of e-mail risks opening their bank account to fraudsters and having their details sold on to other organised criminal gangs.
Bogus e-mails claiming to be from the taxman have also recently
been circulated to employers containing zip file attachments or
hyperlinks. These should not be opened because they include a virus.
This
is Money reported last year how a handful of
businesses fell victim to these types of malware scams after opening
e-mails claiming to be from the taxman, including a chain of bakeries which had £20,000 swiped by fraudsters.
As a result of customers forwarding phishing e-mails to HMRC, the department was last month able to close 178 websites which it found were the source – up from 65 in January 2013.
During 2013, HMRC closed down 1,476 websites sending these types of scam e-mails. Its action led to websites being closed down around the world, including in the USA, Russia and elsewhere.
A record-breaking 8.48million tax returns were filed online by last week’s 31 January deadline, HMRC says.
Gareth Lloyd, head of digital security at HMRC, said: ‘HMRC never contacts customers who are due a tax refund via e-mail – we always send a letter through the post.
‘If you receive an e-mail claiming to be from HMRC which offers a tax rebate, please send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and then delete it permanently.
‘We can, and do, close these websites down, and do all we can to ensure taxpayers stay safe online by working with law enforcement agencies around the world to target the criminals behind these scams.’
HMRC says scam e-mails often begin with sentences such as ‘we have reviewed your tax return; according to our calculations of your last year’s accounts a tax refund of XXXX is due.’
Legitimate tax rebate forms (P800s) from HMRC will contain a payment order and will never ask for credit or debit card details.
Needless service: Taxreturngateway offers tax returns for large fees
Typical details requested in these scam e-mails include – name, address, date of birth, bank account number, sort code, credit card details, National Insurance number, passwords and mother’s maiden name.
As well as phishing scams, Jeff Prestridge from This is Money sister title the Financial Mail on Sunday, has urged Google to crackdown on tax return websites being allowed to top search rankings and attract custom when people could do it for free with HMRC.
One culprit is taxreturngateway.com. It charges fees of up to £1,000 for the filing of a tax return that if done through the official HMRC site would cost nothing.
Google has continued to allow this copycat website to appear at the head of searches for key words such as ‘tax return deadline’.
The result is that hundreds of people a week – maybe more – are using this bogus website and are paying a processing fee as a result.
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The comments below have not been moderated.
Graham,
York, United Kingdom,
31 minutes ago
It is all HMRS fault being lazy is what drove them to bring in a WEB based system very quickly. It is natural for people to try and get some basic help. Many of the sites look official why did they not get them shut down and damn quick??
RJimmer,
Dorchester, United Kingdom,
6 hours ago
They probably thought that, with a lot of people having to make a Self-Assessment return for the first time, it was a ‘window of opportunity’ .
NG,
France,
6 hours ago
So why dosnt someone with an iota of technical know how the same determination that they harass individuals with track them down fine them £1,000,000?
Manu man,
London, United Kingdom,
7 hours ago
No gov department or bank ect will contact you by e mail and ask for details….junk it and dint open…
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