Good Morning.

We have been made aware that there has been an increase of scam calls in the East Riding where the caller says they are calling from HMRC and that you owe them money for unpaid tax, please be aware and be on your guard.

Please see the below guidance from Which for your information.

HMRC scam emails and texts

Fraudsters use a wide variety of approaches to get their hands on your money, or gain access to your bank account or personal details.

HMRC has told Which? it does call people about outstanding tax bills, and sometimes uses automated messages, but it will always include your taxpayer reference number.

It says it will never send notifications of a tax rebate or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email or text message.

You can forward suspicious text messages to 60599. Text messages will be charged at your network rate.

Tax rebate or refund scams

One of the most popular approaches is to entice you with a tax rebate which asks you to provide bank account details so HMRC can process the tax repayment.

The email or text call will promise a tax rebate, and often ask for personal information such as your name, address, date of birth, bank and credit card details – including passwords and your mother’s maiden name.

If you provide the information, money can be stolen from your bank account and your details could be sold on to criminal gangs.

Tempting as the sound of a rebate may be, HMRC will never ask for your bank account details via text or email so don’t respond.

Tax email phishing scams

Tax phishing emails purporting to be from HM Revenue & Customs can happen at any time, but are most common around key online and paper tax deadlines.

Scam emails of this sort not only look official, but can often look like they’ve been sent from official government email addresses, making them harder to spot.

Scammers sometimes even sign off phishing emails with the name or signature of a genuine HMRC employee for added authenticity.

According to the National Trading Standards eCrime unit, HMRC is particularly used by fraudsters to scam consumers around tax deadlines.

The main aim of these emails is to steal money from your bank account, persuade you to send money, or get enough personal information to sell on to other criminals who perform identity theft.

If you want to be sure about the legitimacy of the email, read HMRC's phishing email guide which explains how to recognise a phishing attempt from genuine contact.

Tax scam text messages

We've found that by far one of the most common types of messaging scam is fake notifications from HMRC.

Scammers sometimes use number spoofing to make your phone display ‘HMRC’ as the sender, instead of a phone number.

The warning in the messages can vary considerably, but some of the reported scams are:

The links in these messages will usually send you to a website which will harvest your personal information or spread malware which can lead to identity theft and/or theft of your money.

HMRC sometimes sends text messages, but will never ask for personal or financial information. It also says it will never contact customers who are due a tax refund by text message or by email.

If you get a text message claiming to be from HMRC offering a ‘tax refund’ in exchange for personal or financial details, don’t reply and never open any links in the message.

If you do get a HMRC scam message it, forward it to 60599 (network charges apply).