"HM Revenue and Customs Tax Refunds and Reclaiming Overpaid Tax" Phishing Scam
The email message below with the subject "Tax refunds & Reclaiming overpaid tax," 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
Subject: @HM Revenue & Customs Claim 2017834****: Investigation Started ref: 414881536
From: "apps@tax.co.uk" - ID-34576@test.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 8:47 AM
Tax refunds & Reclaiming overpaid tax
Dear Customer,
Msg Ref: 023/UK8889
* I have reviewed your income tax liability for the year shown above to see whether you have underpaid or overpaid tax for the year.
* Our calculation shows that you are eligible to recive a tax refund of GBP 388.00 ready to claim now.
Please CLAIM NOW, make sure your complete the form correctly as any mistake will take more time to process and you tax refund will be processed withhin 6 - 9 working days as claimed.
Sincerely,
HM Revenue Agency.
All rights reserved.
May 19th, 2018
Under the Privacy Act, individuals have the right to access their personal information and request correction if there are errors or omissions.
Email or text messages carry the notice while the financial institutions securely transfer the money using existing payment networks. For the answers to common questions please visit our FAQs
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.
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Note: Some of the information in samples on this website may have been impersonated or spoofed.