General Chat

I have just received an email purporting to come from HM Revenue and Customs informing me of a tax refund of £188.50 and telling me to apply for this refund. Is this possibly true please?

NO

Ann

doubt it they would just send you letter with cheque attached.
Ring you local tax office and they will be able to tell you.

d x

I shall be doing that tomorrow but wonder what would be the point of anyone sending such an email - what would they gain from it?

I don't think you have to apply for refunds do you?
If you are due one I think it would just be sent?

Gwyn

forgot to say it has given me a website from which I can access the tax refund form - should I look at it or not? Bit scared of these things.

NO its another one of those scams, I had the same email last week.if you go back to them they will know they have a LIVE email address and it will be followed by more emaiils enticing you in ,to part with money or your bank/credit card details.
delete it, or if you can report it as a phishing email which will also delete it

You would apply for it... and they would then either ask you to send your bank details so they could deposit the pennies.. and then they'd kindly empty your account for you, the b******.... or they would know that you had an open and valid account ready for spam!! It's a scam!

Do you do your tax stuff via the internet? I have done mine before... but they still sent me a cheque in the post and there was no e-mail confirmation of it..... and every year when filling the forms in on-line, you have to re-log on with a new set of numbers etc

I'd delete it!

Love

Daff xxx

Be very careful Ann
Jenxx

How did the revenooers get your email address? ;)

I'll bet they've never sent you an email before!

I get emails at every single one of my 2 dozen Gmail accounts telling me I have a problem with my Ebay or PayPal account. None of those Gmail account owners (all me) has an Ebay or PayPal account.

They use software to invent every possible email address in the world, or in your case in the UK, and send out emails to all of them. Probably more than half bounce back because the email address is nonexistent -- but that doesn't matter, because the phishers have abandoned the email account they were sending from anyhow!

You can read up on the practice of phishing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

"In computing, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from PayPal, eBay, Youtube or online banks are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a website."

and never ever do anything but delete the email (oops -- or report it to your ISP as phishing).

In fact, if you google the title of the email, you will probably find websites warning of it.

thanks folks - thought it was too good to be true!! shall delete it right now!

I shall send the copy of the email to the Inland Revenue - thanks again everyone for your input - a bit green me in internet things!!! I'm what's known as a salesman's dream!!

The only way this would be possible if if you had signed up for the equivalent to HMRC Gateway access to IR. This may have been if you were making a return online.

Sue xx

funny that - I put the sender's title in google - hmrc.gov.uk - and it is the official Inland Revenue site!!!!

Hi Sue - never ever done anything on line regarding income tax

Then it shouldn't have been emailed to you. I registered to submit company returns online and that is how they have my email addy.

If you haven't then have a squint and see where it was routed through.

Sue xx

Ann

Go to www.hmrc.gov.uk there is a link on there about scam emails. Dont reply to the link youve been sent.

Vicki

If you want to check it then please only do it via the website and not via an e-mail.
It could be a virus and really not worth the risk

thanks Vicki and Sue [and everyone else] I haven't replied to it and I have now deleted it but did take a copy of the email.
It says at the bottom that to access the tax refund request form go on to

https://online.hmrc.gov.uk

I haven't though!!!!

"I put the sender's title in google - hmrc.gov.uk - and it is the official Inland Revenue site!!!!"

One trick, Ann -- hover your mouse over the link it gives (don't click!!) and you should see something that looks quite different from hmrc.

If we could do html here, it would be easy to demonstrate. I'd put

[a href="http://www.bestpornsiteever.com"]Happy Family Reunion Site[/a]

And you would see Happy Family Reunion Site, but if you clicked on it, you'd go to Best Porn Site Ever.

;)