Tax Refund Scam Email Doing the Rounds

imb4tman · 10 Sep 2010 at 13:45

I know people on here are pretty savvy when it comes to this sort of thing but it doesn't hurt to have a heads up, especially as many people are expecting to hear from HMRC.

The email address I got was [email protected] you can check out the HMRC site for more examples of scam email addresses.

This is the body of the text

Dear Applicant,

Today after the last annual calculation of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you
are eligible to receive a tax refund.

Complete the individual tax refund form attached this confidential message.

After completing the form allow us 5-9 business days in order to process it.

Your verification form will only be valid only for 24 hours.

Pretty obvious scam when you take a minute to look at it but with people worried they may have to pay more tax they might not be thinking straight when they first read it.

div0 · 10 Sep 2010 at 13:48

That looks like it was written by a 5 year old.

Westyfield2 · 10 Sep 2010 at 14:17

imb4tman said:
The email address I got was [email protected]

Have you checked the headers to see if that really was the address or was just the Display Name?

As hmrc.gov.uk is the legit domain, so I'm intrigued how the scammers would be sending emails from it :confused:

...

Jono · 10 Sep 2010 at 14:50

HMRC do not deal with emails or txts. Only posted letters.
Simples.

jamief · 10 Sep 2010 at 15:04

Westyfield2 said:
Have you checked the headers to see if that really was the address or was just the Display Name?

As hmrc.gov.uk is the legit domain, so I'm intrigued how the scammers would be sending emails from it ...

Spoofing mail headers is trivial.

Bleek · 10 Sep 2010 at 15:23

That'll be George up to his old tricks again, what a tinker!