Scammers are sending taxpayers emails and calling them from UK mobiles telling targets to respond immediately or face legal action
In the latest episode of scams targeted against HMRC, individuals are sent an email alerting them that they have missed a delivery of a letter from HMRC, and are told to click a link to allow urgent delivery of a ‘large HMRC letter’
The same scam is targeting individuals of all ages using UK mobile phone numbers, threatening them with legal action for failure to respond.
Messages to HMRC Support on X, formerly Twitter, are reporting multiple instances of the fake phone calls.
One user described the phone caller stating that ‘a letter has been returned to HMRC and if I do not respond then I would face legal action’.
The letter scam states that Royal Mail tried to deliver a ‘large letter’ to the individual taxpayer, which was described as a ‘package from HM Revenue & Customs’.
They are told to click a link to ensure delivery but at this point they will have fallen for the scam.
HMRC never sends emails to taxpayers about random letters and all correspondence from the tax authority is sent by post in brown envelopes, branded with the HMRC logo and return addresses.
Taxpayers need to be on the alert for scams and never click on an email link, particularly as this Royal Mail scam has been around for several years. It is frequently sent by both text and email.
‘Scammers will attempt to dupe people by email, phone or texts that mimic government messages to make them appear authentic,’ HMRC warned.
‘Don’t rush into anything, take your time and check HMRC scams advice.’
HMRC figures for 2023-24 showed that scams were on the rise, with the tax authority receiving over 79,000 different scam alerts over the 12-month period, up 30% on the previous year. This is likely to rise further as fraudsters leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to ramp up their criminal behaviour.
There was also a worrying increase in the total number of scams reported with a total of 207,800 instances of suspicious contact in the past year, up 14% from 181,873 for the previous 12 months.
How to notify HMRC about scams
HMRC is reminding taxpayers to be vigilant about any potential scam activity, protect their personal information and report any suspicious activity and communications to HMRC:
- forward emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk
- report tax scam phone calls to HMRC on gov.uk via online form
- forward suspicious texts claiming to be from HMRC to 60599
Story by Sara White from Accountancy Daily
