Tax refund notification scam

nearlyrich

Morning all

Just received this email, it's a scam I have checked with my tax office. If you get one send it to
[EMAIL="phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk"]phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]




Tax Refund Notification

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 188.50 GBP. Please submit the tax refund request and allow 6-9 days in order to process it.
Click Here to submit you tax refund request
Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid records or applying after deadline.
Yours Sincerely
HM Revenue & Customs
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dealer_wins

That does look better than the average phishing email, thanks for the warning!!

Is it me or do 99.999% of phishing emails have the word FISCAL in them???

trevormax

dealer_wins wrote: »

That does look better than the average phishing email, thanks for the warning!!

Is it me or do 99.999% of phishing emails have the word FISCAL in them???

yep, and also £xxx GBP

trisontana

Don't forget "modalities". That seems to crop up fairly regularly.

yorksrabbit

This scam was launched last year and did the rounds extensively.

Though outwardly sophisticated, it's hilariously ill conceived, as much for its insistence that "by completing this form, your tax refund will be sent directly to your credit card account -- this is the safest and quickest method to receive payment" as for the then desperate plea to provide somebody else's credit card details if you don't have a card yourself. . .

And then fax the whole lot over to an unreachable number within two working days.

I couldn't have been alone in contacting HM Revenue & Customs about this because not long afterwards, the tax refund form, in all its glory, was posted on the 'Net:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/taxrebate-example1.pdf

Presumably, the one so many of us had in 2008 is an earlier version of yours. Either way, it's an example of one of the best-dressed, yet worst-executed scams I've ever encountered.

A pity, though, that HM Revenue & Customs has not, so far as I'm aware, flagged up the existence of this fraud on its own website (though to be fair, I haven't checked: things may have changed over the past 12 months.)

trevormax

yorksrabbit wrote: »

A pity, though, that HM Revenue & Customs has not, so far as I'm aware, flagged up the existence of this fraud on its own website (though to be fair, I haven't checked: things may have changed over the past 12 months.)

They have, it's here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/taxrebate-2.htm pretty much word for word

nearlyrich

The email address they have on the HMRC site for phising is wrong, it is missing the gsi bit in the middle...

yorksrabbit

trevormax wrote: »

They have, it's here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/taxrebate-2.htm pretty much word for word

Thanks trevor -- I hadn't realised Revenue & Customs were handling this prominently now. (Just realised: the scam's even less convincing than hitherto, seeing as how the scammers haven't changed their artwork to accommodate the new HM Revenue & Customs title.)

backtothewind

Yes just had my second one.

These guys are not very intelligent. They refer to the refund in "GBP" as if HM customs deal with other currencies for UK tax purposes.:p

The biggest give away of all, the date "10/20/2009" - now let me see, which is the twentieth month of the year? :rotfl:

Enfieldian

"Fiscal activity"?

That's a new one from Nigeria. They must have a new book in the library.

DarkConvict

Enfieldian wrote: »

"Fiscal activity"?

That's a new one from Nigeria. They must have a new book in the library.

That tickled me