Another E-mail phishing scam to tell you about at the moment is the HM Revenue & Customs E-mail Phishing Scam. This one has the same goal at hand, which is to gather your personal details and bank account details. The difference with this phishing scam is that they are supposedly notifying you of a tax refund which you are due and ask you to fill in the attached tax refund form, which asks for all your bank details.
Of course the simple way to tell if all of this is real or fake is to phone up HMRC directly and ask for information regarding the e-mail. Also I would think it’s extremely unlikely that HMRC would notify you of a tax refund through e-mail.
The content of the phishing e-mail messages I have received is displayed below:
Message 1:
From: HM Revenue & Customs <tax.refunds@hmrc.co.uk>
Subject: Tax Refund Notification
Attachment: form.html
After the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible
to receive a tax refund of 973.90 GBP. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 5-7 days in order to process it.
Please download the document attached to this email to confirm your identity.
Note: You will need to provide a valid bank accoun in which the funds will be payed to.
A refund can be delayed for some reasons, for example submitting invalid records or applying after deadline.Best Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs.
Message 2:
From: HM Revenue & Customs
Subject: Notification of refund
Attachment: Tax Refund Form.html
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
12/29/2011TAX REFUND NOTIFICATION
Dear Taxpayer,
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 223.56 GBP.Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 days in order to process it.
To access your tax refund, please follow the steps below:
- download the Tax Refund Form attached to this email
- open it in a browser
- follow the instructions on your screenA refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
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