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An accounting firm has warned businesses of a compelling case scam letter that pretends to be the Her Majesty’s Revenue Agency tax office
The letter, which uses a font that closely resembles the style of an HMRC letter, says: “We need you to verify your financial information.”
Accounting firm Azets detected the fraudsters in a social networks Friday post showing a fraudulent letter that had been sent to one of its clients.
Sajid Ghufoor, head of Azets’ tax investigation and dispute resolution services, said: “A client received the letter below and believed it to be genuine. However, my colleague Jemima Jones became suspicious and upon closer inspection we identified it was a scam as the email address was never used by HMRC.”
Ghufoor said the obvious clue was the email address used by the scammer, which says companies-review@hmrc-taxchecks.org, and which does not include the ending “gov.”
HMRC has issued an urgent scam alert after receiving news of the scam via its phishing inbox on Friday morning.
An HMRC spokesman said: “Criminals are great frauds. They use a variety of methods to try to trick citizens and often imitate government messages to make them appear authentic.
“Tax scams come in many forms. Some offer a refund, others tell you your tax details are out of date or threaten to arrest you immediately for tax evasion. Never be rushed. If someone contacts you saying they are HMRC and want you to urgently transfer money or provide personal information, be on the alert. We will also never call you and threaten to arrest you. Only criminals do that.
“Unexpected contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so take your time and check out HMRC’s advice on scams on GOV.UK.”
In the image posted by Sajid Ghufoor, the sender’s address was invalid on Google Maps and the letter included HMRC-style statements such as “Please tell us if you have any personal or health circumstances which may make it difficult for you to deal with us.”
The scammer uses harsh language and states: “If you do not respond, we will conduct an investigation and possibly freeze any trading activity until we complete our investigation.”
Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud reporting centre, stressed that the scams were not exclusively postal, saying: “Beware of these fake HMRC emails – they have been reported to us over 700 times this month!”
Other accounting firms have since shared the scam alert on their social media pages.
X users were quick to voice their concerns about the scam and point out markers that differentiated it from official HMRC documents.
Tax expert Dan Neidle commented: “Wow… this is a very clever and evil scam. Internet experts will immediately spot the dodgy email address, but I bet many won’t.”
Price Bailey LLP tax director Nikita Cooper said: The Independent:“HMRC is an easy target for fraudsters and they can often produce very similar replicas.
“Asking you to ‘verify your financial information’ is highly unusual as they would never write to you asking for your bank details.
“Compliance controls typically relate to returns or information from abroad.”
She said the following are easy ways to verify letters: always look at the logo to check if it is distorted, Google the address, always check if the information matches the online government website where you can report it, and never click on any links in emails or text messages.
Have you been scammed by scammers or has this story affected you in any way? Get in touch with us at madeline.sherratt@independent.co.uk