With the Self-Assessment Tax Return deadline approaching on 31 January 2021, HMRC is warning customers completing these returns to take care in avoiding scams.
Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target is contacted by email, phone or SMS by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into giving personal and/or sensitive data. HMRC reports that many scammers target customers to inform them of a fake tax rebate or tax refund they are due.
In the past 12 months, HMRC has responded to more than 846,000 reports of suspicious HMRC contact.
Individuals completing their Self-Assessment can complete their Tax Return online, which involves having two sources of information to access to protect against identity fraud:
- Credit reference agency data
- Tax credits
- P60/Payslip
- UK Passport
You will never receive an email, SMS, message in an application such as Whatsapp or phone call from HMRC which tells you about a tax rebate/penalty or asks for your personal payment information.
Forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and suspicious text messages to 60599.
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