Suspect tax scam

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Benchwayze

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Just had an email purporting to be from inland revenue. Telling me I am due a rebate of £309 I believe inland revenue do not inform us of rebates via email. Does anyone know if this is correct? As far as I know rebates are usually sent by mail in the form of an appropriate cheque. I have not responded to the mail. The senders are persistent!

Thanks in anticipation
John (hammer)
 
Hi John,
From first hand knowledge, HMRC do not use email as it is an inherrently insecure method of communication.
All electronic channels require you to enrol and register so yes it is a scam.
If you are due a rebate, it will come out in your annual tax statement / coding notice.
 
First question, did you ever give HMRC your email address?

I get lots of HMRC scam emails, none of them ever come to the address I actually gave HMRC however.
 
Thank you gents. As I suspected it is scam. I'm just going to delete the email.
Is there any point in informing the Inland Revenue of this scam? Always try to help Inland Revenue as much as I can!
Don't recall giving IR my email BTW.
Thanks again.

John (hammer)
 
If they do email you it’ll only be to say you have a message in your Gateway account, otherwise dump it and block the sender. Not worth sending to HMRC, unless you want to.
 
Noel":1qsq3mae said:
If they do email you it’ll only be to say you have a message in your Gateway account, otherwise dump it and block the sender. Not worth sending to HMRC, unless you want to.

Thank you Noel; much obliged.
John (hammer)
 
It's one of the reasons why I now have my own domain as I can set up dedicated email addresses specific to who I'm giving them to. That way, if I get an email in purporting to be from Company A or Govt Department B, it's a no-brainer to look at the To email address to decide if it's kosher or not.
 
Surprisingly some people do fall for these scams, a sawmill up the road from me had £15'000 lifted from their account after they had a call supposedly from their bank saying that HMRC was trying to
take the money from their account.
The owner and daughter thought it was genuine and gave their bank details, now trying to get the money back from their bank!
 
This response to the OP is not exactly ON topic, but I hope it helps some people anyway.

Because I live permanently outside the UK, but at one time did live and work in UK, I receive an official UK state pension. Just FYI, that sum is paid regularly into my (Swiss) bank account - paid in £ sterling, then converted into Swiss Francs by the bank.

That's gone on for some years quite happily, but it seems the UK Ministry of Works & Pensions are now changing their system and in future my pension will be paid by the (I think quite new to UK but "been around a long time here") IBAN system. (Basically it's something like "International Bank Annunciation Number). As a matter of interest, how the IBAN system works (here anyway) is that the 21-digit IBAN number is unique to every individual customer and separate account and this INCLUDES both a code section that identifies the specific bank and branch AND the individual account number- well it does here anyway, I'm not sure about other countries.

Anyway, the UK Min of Works n Pens recently sent me (by post, not by E-mail)a 3 page Iong form to fill in so that that they could, with the info I provided, continue you to pay my pension into my bank but using the IBAN system.

First off it was clear from the form and the Qs inside there that the Ministry does not understand how the IBAN system works. Secondly, and to me most disturbingly, the info I provided was IMO more than enough for anyone "illegal" to be able to break into my bank account - see below.AND the form just said "send the completed form back by normal post in the envelope provided"!

Now I have no objection to providing my bank details "openly" to someone who clearly has a need - in fact before I retired from my own business I did just that quite regularly, and like every other company here, all my Invoices had that info on the bottom of each sheet.

But to me, to provide by ORDINARY post not only:
- my "normal" bank details, but also several other "special" code numbers which I had to get from the bank;
- the full postal address of the bank branch;
- my own full postal address, WITH E-mail and phone number (& WITH international dialling code);
- plus my UK National Insurance Number;
- AND my last UK postal address;

and just to send that off by normal, unregistered post, MUST be just asking for trouble surely - or do I see this wrongly? Anyway, I sent my completed form back by Registered Post.

I realise from the above that there are several members much more knowledgeable in this area than I am, so I'd appreciate any comments.

But in the meantime, for what it's worth, my initial response to the OP is that sometimes at least, the "UK Govt" does ask "daft" (or very sensitive) questions, if not by E-mail, then certainly by post.

HTH, but as always "be careful and think twice"!
 
Many thanks AES,

I appreciate your concerns. I am aware of the obvious scams such as my IS, asking me for details because they have 'lost' my bank details. As I pay my IS via direct Debit, I know when it's been paid, as I use online banking. So I consign such emails to the gash bin. I was more or less sure, this particular one was a scam, and my post was to warn others as much as anything else. I just fancied confirmation that the IR don't make such requests via email! Have to be careful at my age. Although I am thankful I still have a good few marbles rolling around up there! Maybe not quite so assuredly as they once were, but still there! :lol:

Regards

John (hammer)
 
Thanks John. Like you I also (still) have the odd marble or two (though I'm not so sure how well they/it rattles these days)!

Anyway, I hope to get more input on this subject from those who know more than I do - just as you say, meantime "be careful"! :D
 
Noel":wzbxem82 said:
If they do email you it’ll only be to say you have a message in your Gateway account, otherwise dump it and block the sender. Not worth sending to HMRC, unless you want to.
If you are due a refund it'll say in your gateway message that it has been refunded to the account that you gave them for paying your tax.
 
My wifes uncle, over 90 years old but still with all his marbles, was phoned by someone claiming to be from the fraud team at his bank. They knew a lot of information about him and persuaded him to go to a local branch and withdraw all his money. He was told he must not under any circumstances tell anyone at the branch why he is doing it as they may be part of the fraud. Fortunately he stopped to catch his breath between the car park and the bank and a police woman asked him if he was alright. He told her what was happening and she insisted on going to the bank with him. WhIle he was waiting in a queue she went to see a cashier who involved the manager who managed to persuade him it was a con and they would put a flag on his account regarding attempted fraud. After leaving the bank he got another phone call from the fraudster who was most insistent that he go back to the bank and get his money out. He found it very frightening.

A separate incident; I with my cousin, was involved in sorting out the estate of an uncle who lived in Ireland. We appointed a local solicitor to do the work with a local accountant, a family friend, to act as our local repesetative. The accountant told me later that the solicitor had written to all the banks asking if my uncle had an account. He had a reply from most of them saying there was no trace of an account. However for one of no trace banks we had the paper statements that showed a balance of 60,000 Euro. Shortly after the solicitor contacted the bank head office, the manager of the local branch resigned to follow educational opportunities and the account suddenly appeared with the correct balance in it. You never know who you can trust.
 
HappyHacker":1sdwa9pr said:
My wifes uncle, over 90 years old but still with all his marbles, was phoned by someone claiming to be from the fraud team at his bank. They knew a lot of information about him and persuaded him to go to a local branch and withdraw all his money. He was told he must not under any circumstances tell anyone at the branch why he is doing it as they may be part of the fraud. Fortunately he stopped to catch his breath between the car park and the bank and a police woman asked him if he was alright. He told her what was happening and she insisted on going to the bank with him. WhIle he was waiting in a queue she went to see a cashier who involved the manager who managed to persuade him it was a con and they would put a flag on his account regarding attempted fraud. After leaving the bank he got another phone call from the fraudster who was most insistent that he go back to the bank and get his money out. He found it very frightening.

.....

Presumably if he had to withdraw the money, there must have been a plan by the fraudster to meet him and take the money. Why couldn't the police trap him/her then ? Or better still, a few friends with 2 x 2's. Just make sure no CCTV around.
 
So far I have never spoken to anyone whom I suspect of trying to scam. As long as I have my marbles I know exactly what I'm going to say if such a situation should arise. I will just inform them quite truthfully of what I once did for a living and that I recognise a scam when I hear it . I'll just have to hope that works. I think it should

John (hammer)
 
Benchwayze":1v3smhq0 said:
So far I have never spoken to anyone whom I suspect of trying to scam. As long as I have my marbles I know exactly what I'm going to say if such a situation should arise. I will just inform them quite truthfully of what I once did for a living and that I recognise a scam when I hear it . I'll just have to hope that works. I think it should

John (hammer)


You've got us intrigued now, John :D

Professional hitman ?

Professional boxer ?
 
Nothing so exotic I'm afraid. Just a retired real police officer from before the days Common Purpose was unheard of and we would never dream of walking about in a hi-vis jacket
In those days we were tall enough to be noticed above the crowd; and when being progressive meant getting promoted!


John (hammer)
 
Benchwayze":av3t5jcl said:
Nothing so exotic I'm afraid. Just a retired real police officer from before the days Common Purpose was unheard of and we would never dream of walking about in a hi-vis jacket
In those days we were tall enough to be noticed above the crowd; and when being progressive meant getting promoted!
Oh yes. And when hate speech was recorded as a civil matter. Just see a solicitor sir !

John (hammer)
 
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