E-mails about Over-Payment Refund Impersonate HMRC

Security researchers are warning of fake e-mails supposedly from HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Custom) the tax department of UK asserting that the person receiving the e-mail paid excess tax during a 3-yr period just passed and so will get a refund; reported hoax-slayer.com dated September 11, 2013.

Using a caption, "Tax Refund Notification," the e-mails inform the recipient that after his computer went through an upgrade and the tax department examined its records as well as studied the user's most recent tax returns and his complete payments during the just past 3-yrs, it has determined that he has over-paid by an amount of 323.52 Great Britain Pounds.

The e-mails continue that because the due refunds are large, it's necessary that the user fills out a given application form, which doesn't have a telephone helpline for assistance. The processing of the re-imbursement is likely to take a maximum of 6-weeks. Meanwhile the form must be completed accurately.

The e-mails then draw the recipients' attention to certain Income Tax refund that he may've got, stating that it'll be after he has made a claim alternatively since HMRC lately got fresh information regarding his eligibility for allowances or his taxable income. The refund could arrive via his tax code alternatively in the form of a payment as well as might associate with the present else previous tax years, the e-mails indicate.

Nonetheless, the e-mails aren't any HMRC communication rather they're a phishing campaign crafted for duping residents into divulging personal info and/or their financial details for Internet scammers.

If anybody believes the scam as well as views the attachment it'll produce an online form, which solicits plentiful financial and personal details. Entering and submitting them would dispatch the entire information belonging to the victim onto the cyber-crooks' server.

For, HMRC wouldn't ever dispatch tax refund messages through a mass unsolicited e-mail as also require tax paying citizens to provide confidential data through any un-secure form dispatched in a file attached to e-mail.

Therefore, HMRC urges recipients of tax-related e-mails asserting they're HMRC messages to forward them at tophishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk prior to erasing them wholly.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/19/2013