Hmrc Phishing

[DTCwordfan]

An ABer has recently received the following e-mail.....it turns out someone is out for a scam - so beware. He/she sent me an e-mail for opinion and I got them the HMRC phishing address - in their reply below the scam text.

Just be aware of this one as a tax repayment in your favour is always tempting....

The scam e-mail was done in HMRC colours and format and alerted the receiver to the fact that there was a £148-50 credit to be made with a dodgy reference number - and if the account details could be forwarded, then payment would be effected.

No reference to address, tax i/d, office, and remember that the actual tax form gives you a box for any credits to be made to your account......the e-mail address for the reply was also suspicious as it mentioned no indication of hmrc in it's address and all hmrc correspondence do this and have a gov.uk ending....this was a hotmail.

The example of this letter our friend received was like the first example on the hmrc phishing site: page 3 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/502856/Phishing_emails_and_bogus_contact_Feb_16.pdf

[i] the reply he/she has received from HMRC this morning:[i]

"Thank you for letting us know about the suspicious email you have received. We can confirm that this is a scam, and was not issued by HMRC.
Our specialist team will investigate and take the necessary action. Whilst we cannot inform you of the outcome of these investigations I can confirm that we do act on each submission we receive.
HMRC will never send notifications of a tax refund or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email.

If following receipt of a HMRC related e-mail scam you have disclosed:

Personal information such as password/user ID;
credit/debit card information or have reason to believe your computer has been exposed to a virusPlease forward a report to us at: HYPERLINK "mailto: [email protected]"


If you have disclosed credit/debit card information you should inform your bank/card issuer immediately.

Emails such as the one you received are issued in huge numbers and sent indiscriminately. We recommend that you use up to date spam filters and continually update your computers anti-spyware and anti-virus software.

In common with all providers of online services, HMRC takes security very seriously but you need to be alert.

We continuously monitor systems and customer records to guard against fraudulent activity. The methods fraudsters use to get the information they want is constantly changing so we provide regular updates on the types of scams we are aware of. The main risk is identity or user ID and password theft. Please ensure that you keep your user ID and passwords secure and change your passwords regularly.

HMRC publicises details of current scams on our website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phishing-and-bogus-emails-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples

Please continue to forward all suspicious HMRC related e-mails to HYPERLINK "mailto:[email protected]" [email protected]

[Buenchico]

That one was doing the rounds even before Nigerian princes started asking people for the use of their bank accounts in return for large sums of money!

[DTCwordfan]

no bad thing to remind people that it is still doing the rounds then.....

[moellinken]

http://guides.uufix.com/how-can-we-remove-trojanwin64patched-az-gendll-virus-and-fix-dnsapi-dll-issue/

http://guides.uufix.com/malware-the-most-destructive-computer-threat/

[Islay]

LieinKing posted a reminder in February as well, its showing in related posts.

[ummmm]

People should always remember HMRC do not email people...

[CharlesBetz]

Yes, here in the U.S., I got fake calls from people claiming they were the IRS and that there was a pending lawsuit against me. I am not even a U.S. citizen and I just moved here with my American spouse. The alarm bells immediately went off!

Later, I read that this scam had scammed over $21 million dollars out people who were obviously worried about the IRS suing them, so they immediately sent off money to who knows where.

I read some interesting information at http://www.idtheftauthority.com and was instantly reminded that government agencies, banks, and pretty much any company you’ve done business with will not contact you this way.

Fraudsters are constantly changing things up, so we need to be on our toes and make sure we are guarding our information carefully, but also understand how the actual companies and the government will communicate with us.