Hmrc Scam?

[tearinghair]

Have just noticed in my Spam box an email supposedly from HM Revenue and Customs with the subject 'Submit your tax refund'. I smell a rat.... surely they just call themselves HMRC, and wouldn't they say 'tax return' not 'refund'? I'm disinclined to open it, but what if there is a refund due? (I doubt it). Has anyone had a similar message?

[factor-fiction]

Most of us have had many of these. Delete it. Report to HMRC phishing address if you want. HMRC wouldn't have your email address and don't send emails.
I bet the email just calls you dear customer or something like that

[FredPuli43]

Correct. Spam. Any recipient of genuine messages from HMRC notes that they address you by name, and don't volunteer refunds without reason. And they never use emails

[Spoonboy]

Luckily, my mail provider sorts out the spam and junks it so I do not get to see it

[tearinghair]

Many thanks factor-fiction and FredPuli. I certainly wouldn't open anything of that sort from a bank, but I haven't had one from this source before so wasn't sure what to think about it. Will delete and report as you suggest.

[tonyav]

Definitely spam, HM revenue and customs wouldn't Email you, you would get a letter in the post.

[tearinghair]

I'd be nervous about doing that, Spoonboy, as I nearly missed a message from my son once; he'd sent it from his work address and it went into the Spam folder.

[factor-fiction]

I usually report them (and attach headers) but I'm not convinced these reports to paypal, banks, HMRC are acted upon because the same ones still keep coming- there is little they can do to stop them

[Spoonboy]

I don't have to do anything, it gets done before I see it.

[hc4361]

You will never receive personal information from your bank, building society, HMRC etc via email - especially if you've never given them your email address :)

Even the National Lottery, which I manage online and pay by direct debit, only emails me to tell me to log in to receive a message, and then it addresses me by name.

[hc4361]

Who is your email provider, Spoonboy?
How do they know what you consider to be spam or otherwise?

[Spoonboy]

Perhaps they look at my preferences when going on line, take into account the ads I block, and go from there: otherwise, all emails I get are personal without spam, or luncheon meat, or whatever else someone wishes to put there.

[hc4361]

So your email provider tracks you. Who is it?

[Spoonboy]

Perhaps I signed in to have oit done and save me the trouble of spamming it all; otherwise my provider is your common or garden gmail.

[Spoonboy]

I'm not actually posh, or pretending to be...
...don't know where that o came from, the pesky little oick!

[hc4361]

Oh. Do you ever look in your spam folder?

[Spoonboy]

I do, and it is always empty, but for a message telling me that spam was junked.

[boxtops]

Yes, I get this one every so often, had one last week - I forwarded it to [email protected] (they ask you to, so they can investigate)

[boxtops]

I also get several emails from google advising me that there is a gmail message waiting for me (click here) but when I go direct to gmail on my phone, there's nothing there.

[factor-fiction]

>I do, and it is always empty, but for a message telling me that spam was junked.
So maybe previous HMRC, paypal, bank phishing etc emails have been going to your spam folder (which then must quickly delete them) so this latest HMRC will be one that slipped through the net. And maybe emails from your son at work are still bypassing your in box.

Or maybe you have just been very careful with giving out your email address. After getting loads of spam I opened a new email address 3 months ago and have used it carefully, leaving my older addresses for less trustworthy contacts. The only entries in the spam box are, erm, the AnswerBank Newsletter

[heathfield]

Allowing your mail provider to decide what's spam and what's not may not be the best idea. You may end up missing genuine emails. There's the well-known case some years ago, when Harvard University decided for the first time to email students with their end-of-year exam results. With the big quantity of emails all being despatched from the same source, Harvard's ISP, AOL, decided these must be spam, and blocked the lot! This wasn't realised by Harvard until students complained that they hadn't had their results by the scheduled date.