Phishing Emails Allegedly From The Taxman

As we are all aware there are various deadlines for filing in self assessment and failure to do so can result in fines and other charges from the tax authorities.  Fraudsters are now taking advantage of these deadlines to send spam emails to individuals. We need to watch out for such emails and avoid being victims of fraud.

These emails, usually emailed around these self assessment deadlines, ask for your card and bank details, date of birth, national insurance number and your mothers maiden name. These emails usually say that you have overpaid tax and are therefore due to a rebate. If you are fooled to hand in these details, the fraudsters either sell your details or use the details to defraud people.Q8JR8PQT9S2V

As these emails continue to get more convincing by the day, what can you do to avoid being a victim of these scams. The best answer is simply to ignore them. Tax authorities never email about tax matters such as refunds or other important issues such as change in tax code. The official mode of communication for such matters is usually in writing, by post.

You will also do well to forward these emails to the government email address for phishing emails of your tax or government authorities. In the case of the United Kingdom, it is phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk