The email message below with the subject "Return Payment Confirmation," is a fake HM Revenue & Customs tax refund notification that being sent by scammers to potential victims. The scammers will attempt to trick taxpayers into completing a fake application form that asks them for their credit card, personal, account information. If the potential victims complete and submit the form, their information will be sent to the cybercriminals behind the scam. Once the scammers have their victims' information, they will use it to rip them off.
Victims of this phishing scam are advised to contact their bank or credit card company as soon as possible to report the stolen credit card information and change their online passwords immediately.
The "HM Revenue & Customs Return Payment Confirmation" Phishing Message
From: office@tax.service.gov.uk <uowcy@oecd.org>
Sent: 15 June 2017 13:46
Subject: Return Payment Confirmation
Annual Tax Refund
Imagini pentru gov.uk new logo
Dear annieburman@hotmail.com.
Your refund has been issued by HM Revenue & Customs.
Refund Number : 019752781
HM Revenue & Customs has recalculate your last fiscal activity and have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 673.26 GBP.
If you want to claim your refund , simply complete the refund form with your personal information
After submitting the refund form , please allow us up to 5 business days in order to validate your form..
Email messages from HMRC will never:
- notify you of a tax rebate
- offer you a repayment
- ask you to disclose personal information such as your full address, postcode, Unique Taxpayer Reference or details of your bank account
- give a non-HMRC personal email address to send a response to
- ask for financial information such as specific figures or tax computations, unless you’ve given us prior consent and you’ve formally accepted the risks
- have attachments, unless you’ve given prior consent and you’ve formally accepted the risks
- provide a link to a secure log-in page or a form asking for information - instead, we will ask you to log on to your online account to check for information
HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate/refund by email or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email. Do not visit the website contained within the email or disclose any personal or payment information. HMRC may occasionally issue text messages, however, these messages will never request personal or banking information. If you receive a text message claiming to be from HMRC offering a ‘tax refund’ in exchange for personal/banking details you should not respond. Do not open any links contained within the message.
Remember, don’t give out private information (such as bank details or passwords), reply to text messages, download attachments or click on any links in emails if you’re not sure they’re genuine.