HMRC tax rebate could be a scam!

As you have probably heard in the news, many people are and will be receiving letters that may give them a tax rebate, or inform them they owe the HMRC money. As with all such public schemes, there is a criminal minority who take advantage and attempt to turn this into a money earning event – for them.

The scam is along the same lines as normal, produce an email that looks like it is from HMRC, even having the correct logos. However, there is usually a link inside the email to a phishing website, which, should you fill in your details you are opening yourself up to identity theft. You could lose the contents of your bank account. People already work hard enough for their money – don’t give it away to the criminal fraternity!

What should you do?

Firstly, HMRC don’t give out tax rebates via email. Their website states: “HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate by email, or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email. If you have received an email claiming to be from HMRC that you suspect may be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.”. You can read this on http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm. So if you receive such an email – don’t click on any of the links, not even to ‘see what it looks like’. As soon as you click on the link, it is possible that your email address will be verified. This means that the spammers know your address is valid, so why not send you a few hundred more emails – you might like one of the other offerings instead!

At KTS Computers Ltd we want you to stay safe and secure, so if you are not sure, then please feel free to contact us for more information. If you have an IT question just email it to us at sales@ktscomp.co.uk – even if you’re not a customer. We’ll do our best to send you a response by email.

You can also send us a question on Twitter   @Ask_Ken

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