Fraudsters are taking advantage of the package of measures announced by the Government to support people and businesses affected by coronavirus. Scammers text, email or phone taxpayers offering spurious financial support or tax refunds, sometimes threatening them with arrest if they don’t immediately pay fictitious tax owed.

HMRC has detected more than 40 coronavirus-related financial scams to date, most by text message.

HMRC has have asked Internet Service Providers to take down more than 60 web addresses associated with these scam campaigns.

“HMRC’s advice

Stop:

• Take a moment to think before parting with your information or money.
• Genuine organisations like banks and HMRC will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or bank details, or to withdraw money or transfer it to a different account.
• Don’t give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in texts or emails you weren’t expecting.

Challenge:

• Could it be fake? It’s ok to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you.
• Check GOV.UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact and how to avoid and report scams.
• If you think you have received an HMRC-related phishing/bogus email or text message, you can check it against examples published on GOV.UK.

Protect:

• Use the latest software, apps and operating systems on your phone, tablet or laptop. Update these regularly or set your devices to automatically update so you don’t have to worry.
• Forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599.
• Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen victim to a scam, and report it to Action Fraud.”