Tax rebate scam

[Sam]

Here is a copy of an email I received from The FSB.

An FSB member sent me a copy of a SCAM email he received today purporting to be from Carl Craig at HM Revenue & Customs. The email tells you that HMRC have determined that you are due a tax rebate and asks you to complete the attached form.

The form looks very good and carries the correct HMRC branding however it asks you for your credit card details including date of birth, security code and mothers maiden name. All of this information together would leave you open to fraud.

I have informed Lothian & Borders Police who confirmed they were aware of this scam and that it looks very authentic.

I have taken the following from the HMRC website:

HMRC do not send notifications of a tax rebate over email, or request that you update your security certification. If you receive an email that doesn't address you by your first name and surname and then asks you to click on a link and/or disclose your details, you may well be revealing your details to a fraudulent website.

If you have received an email from HMRC that you consider to be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk. HMRC cannot reply to every email, but action is taken on each report received.

 

[malcolm]

Thanks for the report email address. I also had a couple of those scam emails and ignored them.

Her Majesty's Tax folk do not have my email address. They send me letters. (And I still ignore most of those as I find them confusing. So long as I pay them tax once a year they seem to be happy.) Anyone who has my email address is not HMRC, and HMRC likes to send nasty letters so anyone who sends emails to anyone is not HMRC.

It struck me as a nasty scam - Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs send you a note saying you need to act quickly for fear of execution by entering all the things they might need to access your bank account in a site linked from the email.

 

[Tigman]

I do my upmost to ignore the tax man too but he always catches me in the end !

 

[Sam]

I do my upmost to ignore the tax man too but he always catches me in the end !

I tried that once, they definately do not like being ignored.

 

[Tigman]

I know !

 

[malcolm]

100% sure you can ignore emails from them. They'll write letters and then they'll phone. I haven't left it later than that yet.

I had a lovely young lady from my car insurance company phone me a couple of weeks ago. When she asked for card details I said I'd phone her back using the number they had on their website (and asked her who to ask for). She was perfectly OK with that.

She hasn't married me yet but I'm planning to work on that one.

 

[Shox Dr]

I'm lucky enough to have a unlimited email boxes. So people such as my bank, VAT man etc have email unique to them, so any email purporting to be from say the bank that doesn't match whatever I have given them before the @ sign, doesn't even get to my PC.

Doesn't cost that much 50quid a year. Worth it I think



I also have this simple script as a bookmark.

javascript:alert("The true URL is:\t\t" + location.protocol + "//" + location.hostname + "/" + "\nIf this does not match the URL shown in your browser address bar, you are likely to be seeing a web page from a different web site! We recommend that you close you browser and empty your browser cache now.");


cut and paste the above into a new tab and boomark it and save it to your tab bar in ie or whatever you use. When you are on a site your are unsure of, click on the link. if the site is who it says it is the message will confirm the url.


give it a go

 

[Shox Dr]

like this

 

[Sam]

100% sure you can ignore emails from them. They'll write letters and then they'll phone. I haven't left it later than that yet.

I had a lovely young lady from my car insurance company phone me a couple of weeks ago.

She hasn't married me yet but I'm planning to work on that one.

"Dont" I married the accountant that does my books. Look at me now four kids!!

 

[..DAZ..]

If anybody ever emails asking you to confirm detals of any sort it is almost deffinatley a scam! Dont reply to them (as I used to) just delete the message after sending a copy to whoever it is they are reporting to be. HMRC, your bank or anybody else legit will send you a letter or phone you. Its amazing how many people still get caught out by this year after year.

daz

 

[Wozzaaah]

I run Mailwasher so any suspicious emails get flagged as spam before they leave the server. It also shows the TRUE url of any links, not just the clicky name.
Oh, and I had the very same HMRC one earlier today.

 

[Paul.]

Mailwasher's quite good, I use the free version which only lets you set up one e mail address, I get a lot of spam trying to sell me those little blue pills, most of which seem to come from my own email address. Also a lot from Banks that I don't deal with.

 

[Robotstar5]

Mailwasher's quite good, I use the free version which only lets you set up one e mail address, I get a lot of spam trying to sell me those little blue pills, most of which seem to come from my own email address. Also a lot from Banks that I don't deal with.

When I was with Freeserve, I used to get spam from my own address, I could never figure it out

 

[Paul.]

When I was with Freeserve, I used to get spam from my own address, I could never figure it out

It is a freeserve address, its a real nuisance, I sometimes email files to myself from the workshop to home to work on, and then back again, if you block the spam you block yourself.