The Fraud Advisory Panel has warned consumers about a tax refund scam in which a text offers them a fraudulent tax refund of almost £277 for the tax year 2020/21.
The anti-fraud group posted a screenshot of the bogus text about the tax refund scam on X (formerly Twitter). It read: “HMRC Refund: You have an outstanding Tax refund of £276.74 from 2020 to 2021. Follow instructions to claim your Tax refund at: https://gov-tax.refundpr.com/”.
The associated Tweet said: “Did you just get a suspicious text or email from HMRC? STOP! Don’t click any links; instead, use a trusted URL to log into your gov gateway.”
The same scam text was also doing the rounds in September last year.
Information on the HMRC said that it does sometimes send texts to taxpayers and these might include a link to GOV.UK information or to HMRC webchat.
However, HMRC said it will never ask for personal or financial information when it sends text messages and warned consumers “not to open any links or reply to a text message claiming to be from HMRC that offers you a tax refund in exchange for personal or financial details.”
People can forward the tax refund scam or any other suspicious emails to HMRC’s phishing team at phishing@hmrc.gov.uk.
Related: Five tax credits scams to watch out for as renewal packs land
