Fraud and scams
Fraudsters are sending out high volumes of emails supposedly sent from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) offering tax rebates. These and other examples can be found on our existing fraud attempts page. Please be aware that although these fraudulent emails may contain the HMRC logo and other details, they are fake and you should never respond to an email which asks for personal information. While we may send you emails from time to time, we would never do so requesting login, bank and credit cards details.
If you suspect you have received a fraudulent email please do not follow any links within the email, disclose any details or respond to it.
Forward it to us at phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. We cannot reply on each email we receive, but the information will be used to help reduce online fraud.
Points to look for
We want to make sure you can recognise a fraudulent email if you receive one, so we have compiled this list of key points to look out for.
- The padlock - when you log on to HMRC Online Services you are always in a 'secure session' - which is shown by the padlock in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser.
- Your name - fraudulent emails are not normally addressed to you personally, they can be missing addressee details or contain something vague such as 'Dear valued customer'.
- The sender - HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was formed on the 18 April 2005 following the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise departments. Those former departmental names no longer exist. Recent fraud attempts have used the following fake departmental names.
- Embedded links - the email may include a link that you are asked to follow to take you to a website. Following the link takes you to a site that may look genuine, but it is most probably a fake. In the email, if you hover your mouse pointer over the link it will show the real address you will be directed to.
If you think you have been scammed
If you have good cause to suspect that your personal details have been stolen by fraudsters either by email or on the Internet, you should report the incident to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), via their abuse hotline (eg abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@aol.com etc). They are in a position to close down sites that are found to be bogus.
Anything that relates to HMRC and HMRC business should be forwarded to us at phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk for further investigation.
