Both the Revenue Commissioners and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs felt the need this week to issue warnings about eMail scams which hold out the prospect of tax refunds in exchange for the provision of sensitive bank details. While Chartered Accountants, both by training and temperament, would likely regard any purported communication from a Revenue authority with immediate suspicion, employees or clients might not.

The Revenue Commissioners warning is succinct – “The Revenue Commissioners never send emails which require customers to send personal information via email or pop-up windows”. The HMRC warnings and guidance are more extensive, but amount to the same thing.

It’s no harm to be aware of the relevant links to the Revenue authorities websites –

HMRC

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/spoofs.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-scams.htm

Revenue Commissioners

http://www.revenue.ie/en/security.html