Recent Council Tax Scam - fraudsters targeting the innocents

In a recent council tax scam, the fraudsters are targeting the people saying that they owed a refund. These fraudsters in an email targets the receiver by saying that the email receiver has overpaid their council tax and contained a link, which when clicked, takes the email receiver to a website where they are asked to fill-up their details.

The email link takes the receiver to a government website that is fake, and asks the receiver to enter their personal details along with their bank information so that they can claim their refund. However, once the details are entered, the fraudsters use that information for withdrawing money from the email receiver's account.

Mark White - the Chief Executive of Reassura, the Fraud Prevention Service, said that "this is a play on the classic phishing scam where fraudsters trick victims into handing over financial details, the new twist is telling people that they are owed a refund".

Whoever becomes a victim of this scam should first inform the bank about the same, as early as possible. Also, the victim should regularly keep a watch on his/her bank statements for any kind of unusual activity.

In order to protect oneself from this scam - whenever one receives an email from council, he/she should find the council's phone number independently and not use the one that is available in the email. Then call the council to confirm; secondly, one should check the email for the grammatical or spelling errors, as councils always proofread the correspondence that was sent to you. So, in most cases when the email is having lots of grammatical or spelling errors then it is fake; also, as the fraudsters can spoof the email addresses and phone numbers of the companies you know, therefore don't assume any email or phone call is authentic; besides one should never click links or attachments in texts or emails that are being received from unknown sources or are received without any reason; and any unsolicited request for financial or personal information should be questioned.

In another council tax scam, the fraudsters call up the victims to inform them that they are being placed in the incorrect council tax bracket and therefore they are entitled for a rebate.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/3/2019