Scam Letter By HMRC

Darksparkle

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2148337

ropewalk

I also had one of these letters, sent to my brother, and foolishly I rang them in a panic. I am now trying to remember what I told them, but they certainly seemed to know a lot about his circumstances. This morning I have rung DWP, but they are unable to tell me whether it is genuine or not. They seem to have no idea!

teddysmum

ropewalk wrote: »

I also had one of these letters, sent to my brother, and foolishly I rang them in a panic. I am now trying to remember what I told them, but they certainly seemed to know a lot about his circumstances. This morning I have rung DWP, but they are unable to tell me whether it is genuine or not. They seem to have no idea!

The DWP wouldn't know about mailings from HMRC.

xylophone

http://legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?76382-%91Please-change-your-payment-account%92-letter-DWP

Darksparkle

teddysmum wrote: »

The DWP wouldn't know about mailings from HMRC.

If the letter says HM Government it doesn't necessarily mean HMRC as HMRC have their own letter head. Plus HMRC don't deal with DLA.

ropewalk

The letter comes from HM Government NOT HMRC.

Thanks for the link to the leagle beagle site, but it is not clear on there whether it is a scam or not - there seems to be a feeling that it is a way to transfer everyone from PO to bank as a policy.

My main concern is whether it is a scam. If it is not a scam then the issue of whether it is a sensible policy needs to be addressed, but no point arguing about that until we know whether it is genuine or not.

cheesetoast

Re the bad spelling/grammar on the letter, might I point out that, for at least two years, real letters went out about state pensions, from "The Pesnion Service".

cheekyweegit

There is a couple of legitimate mail shots on the go I believe where customer who are receiving more than one benefit where one is going into a bank account and the other a Post Office Card Account (POCA) asking them about transferring the money to the bank account for both benefits.

If customer does not reply it is getting done automatically, the customer then gets a letter which confirms the change of details generating lots of worried customer calls to DWP.

The POCA accounts are being phased out by DWP as they are quite expensive at around 50p per transaction per person to pay money in which really adds up as opposed to around 1p for a normal bank account.

Nothing to stop a lot of customer opening a normal account with the Post Office and changing the details to this.

If you want to double check your letter is legitimate, just call DWP on your usual number from any letter you know is legitimate such as the uprating letter you would have received recently giving you details of the increase to your benefits the week commencing Monday 11th April 2016.

ropewalk

Problem is DWP don't seem to know anything about it...

paul54

I thought it was very odd to be asked to send my bank details to the DHS through the post, it all sounded a bit iffy to me. The "from"adress is a call handling centre, and the return envelope it to a call handling center, the bottom of the letter says "Yours sincerely" and just below that is "Office Manager" but no name or signiture between the two, there's other "iffy" stuff too. I haven't filled it in and I wonder should this letter be handed to the police, I see the scam has been going on for some time and they have got hold of some very important personal details such as my NI number! All this imformation can be sold a fake identity! and if anyone falls for this letetr and sends the info to the so called DHS they could lose everthing they have in the bank:mad:

Pauline