During the last three months HMRC has helped to close down 185 websites that are purporting to hand out tax refunds to taxpayers.
Individuals receive an email and are requested to part with personal details of their bank or credit card accounts to facilitate the supposed tax refund.
HMRC will only ever contact you about these matters by post. Currently they do not use telephone calls, emails or external companies.
You can check the advice published at www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm to see if the email you have received is listed. If you do receive a suspicious email:
- Forward email to HMRC at [email protected] and then delete it from your hard drive.
- Do not click on any website addresses, attachments or other links in the email.
- Follow advice from www.getsafeonline.co.uk.
- If you have inadvertently provided details of your bank or credit card accounts call your bank or card provider immediately.
