Alert issued over scam tax refund emails

llanblogger has received a scam tax refund email from tricksters pretending to be from HM Customs & Excise.

The email, which claims that a refund of £320.51 is due to the recipient has been confirmed as fraudulent by the real HMRC.

Received on Monday morning from the email address "MH Revenue.co.uk", it prompts the recipient to follow a link it gives if they wish to claim the refund.

The payment method, it says, will be "online credit/debit card to your account."

llanblogger forwarded the email immediately to HMRC's online security team and shortly afterwards received an email from them, which said: "Thank you for letting us know about the suspicious email / text you have received. We can confirm that this is a scam, and was not issued by HMRC.

"Our specialist team will investigate and take the necessary action. Whilst we cannot inform you of the outcome of these investigations I can confirm that we do act on each submission we receive."

And it adds: "HMRC will never send notifications of a tax refund or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email or text message."

* Anyone taken in by similar scam messages by disclosing any personal information is urged to forward a report to:  security.custcon@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

HMRC publicises details of current scams on our website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phishing-and-bogus-emails-hm-revenue-and-customs-examples
 
HMRC asks for suspect emails to be forwarded to: phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk or texts to: 60559.