Who Gains What From This Scam?

[tearinghair]

Have just received a phone call informing me that HMRC are starting a case against me, and I should press 1 to speak to my case officer. This is nonsense. I don't understand how it can be of any use to anyone; is it for identity theft, ow would whoever it is be asking for cash? Obviously i don't intend to press 1 (or anything else).

[emmie]

are you sure its a scam.

[hc4361]

Not a new scam

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/phones/2016/06/warning-fake-hmrc-calls-on-the-rise---what-to-do-if-youve-been-targeted

[hc4361]

The HMRC would never make a phone call like that - it would be a letter

[mikey4444]

If you had pressed that button, you would have been put through to a very clever fraudster, almost certainly not based here in Blighty.

He or she would then have employed all their retinue of dirty tricks, to get you to reveal important personal details.

It obviously hasn't worked with you, but it works often enough to make it worth the criminals time and money.

[fiction-factory]

It's most likely that they will ask for monetary payment to avoid the "court action ", probably via bank transfer, or (less likely) they may try to elicit enough personal info to steal your ID. But the best thing is, as you say,just to ignore the call completely

[emmie]

one to look out for.

[tearinghair]

Yes, emmie, quite sure! Thanks, hc4631. Will inform friends and family who might just be taken in by it.

[taichiperson]

Mum had that one a few weeks ago. I rang the police and asked if it was one doing the rounds - hey presto, they'd been snowed under with phone calls from worried folk. This particular one stated that police were going to come around to arrest them unless they paid money.

[paddyk]

I got exactly the same call a few weeks ago. I was worried but then I thought HMRC would never make a call like that - it's got to be a scam. Anyway I ignored it and have never heard any more.

[tearinghair]

I know I'm old-fashioned, but I do despair of people who think they have the right to behave like that. Do they never think of the consequences to their victims?

[emmie]

seems not, best to put this down to experience.

[fiction-factory]

It's also possible that you'll incur the cost of a premium rate phone call when you ring back- although the scammers are probably hoping to make more than the £10 or so call charges

[woofgang]

My DH was investigated by the HMRC many years ago. He went to work on a secondment abroad so stopped paying Uk tax. For some crazy reason, HMRC (it was HMIT then) got the idea that he had ceased to work for his company but was still receiving his salary and paying no UK tax. Instead of just asking, they started doing secret investigation. Its hilarious now but was weird at the time.....he was trying to sort out his tax affairs in our homecoming year and, as he worked long hours, I was doing a lot of the phonecall chasing. Nowadays of course they wouldn't do it but this was in the days of joint tax returns where the spouse wasn't in employment and didn't pay tax. I would phone and ask questions about what we should be doing in terms of part year return reporting and so on and they told me that they had an asbestos problem and his files were in a sealed area of the building! One inventive chap even told me that he could see the files through a glass door but couldn't get them!