OK so maybe I was being blonde - but when you are very tired it is easy to think for just a minute that someone is actually being honest!!!
Got home from work extremely tired after early shift. Looked at emails and got very excited when HM Revenue & Customs told me that I was going to receive a tax refund of £468.50. In the email was a link to click which bank you were with and a section to fill in your banking details etc to receive payment directly. I genuinely believed this for a moment and then my sensible head took over - surely tax office would write to you/send a cheque (trying to remember the last time this happened genuinely). Also the wording in the email is not well written/bad grammar etc and 'Best Regards' at the end somehow didn't add up!!!!!!! So I spent 17 minutes in a queue phoning HM Revenue and Customs who told me that this email was indeed a Bogus email!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOW at this point I really want to type lots of swear words.......but all I will say is there are some horrible, nasty, sad people out there. Also in the email was a proper HM and Customs Logo aswell - it WILL catch some people out sadly!
PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
This is a copy of the email that was sent:
"Tax Refund Notification
From: HM Revenue & Customs
Subject: Tax Refund Notification
Date: 16 March 2011 00:27:32 GMT
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you
are eligible to receive a tax refund of 468.50 GBP. Please submit the tax refund
request and click here by having your tax refund send to your bank account in due time
Please Click Here to have your tax refund to your bank account, your tax refund will be sent
to your bank account in due time take your time to go through the bank we have on our list
Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid
records or applying after deadline.
Best Regards
HM Revenue & Customs"
Posts
This scam is not just by email but also via phone calls, Penny.
ReplyDeleteI read that HMRC have stated that if any contact is via the phone or by email, then it is not from them. They only ever make contact in writing.
The word 'fiscal' should have alerted you, this is an americanism not used here! I've had loads of these, just junk them and anything else like it. If they really want to get in touch with you urgently they'll write an official letter. Have a look at this 'scambaiting' site, it's a site started by my brother, and go to the letters page, some of them are hilarious. http://www.419eater.com/index.php
ReplyDeleteThanks Graham and Sue!
ReplyDelete