New Phishing Scam

[MikeT]

Dear Applicant:
Following an upgrade of our computer systems and review of our records we
have investigated your payments and latest tax over the last seven
years our calculations show you made over payments of 235.50 GBP.
Due to the high volume of refunds due you must complete the line application,
the telephone help line is unable to assist with this application.

In order to process your refund you will need to complete the application form (link to dogsandcats.5gigs.net deleted by me).
Your refund may take up to 4 weeks to process please make sure you complete the form correctly.

As we are upgrading our records we require the completed form showing your full current details by 12 December 2010.

Please submit the application form to confirm the refund.



S. M. Roberts
Senior Manager
HM Revenue & Customs

--------------------------------------------------------------
© Copyright 2010, HM Revenue & Customs UK All rights reserved.
TAX REFUND ID: A29R119

[myglaren]

Something more to watch out for

[Sid_the_Squid]

These new scams are not half as fun as the old "African prince needs some minor sum of money to offload a few million dollars" style scams.

[CitroJim]

About the only true statement in this is this:

the telephone help line is unable to assist with this application.

And that probably holds true for any inquiry to HMRC via the 'phone..



If it really was from HMRC then it would not start "Dear Applicant" and would contain some information to prove it's authentic.

eBay emails are a good example of how they go about proving it really is genuine.

[evilally]

Lots of people are actually getting real letters about over/under payment of tax at the moment (you may recall it was in the news). However, I can personally confirm that if you are owed money, they just send you a big fat cheque

[myglaren]

Lots of people are actually getting real letters about over/under payment of tax at the moment (you may recall it was in the news). However, I can personally confirm that if you are owed money, they just send you a big fat cheque

I'll confirm that - my daughter just got one that paid for her heating oil for the winter

[CitroJim]

I can personally confirm that if you are owed money, they just send you a big fat cheque

Hopefully not a cheque from the Jodrell Bank and signed M.Mouse...

Seriously, that's a great result and a lovely Christmas present from good old HMRC!

[Paul-R]

And my wife received a cheque refund also. It seems to be people who had two, or more, part-time jobs at the same that are affected.

On a related note; I haven't heard of anyone who has had the letter telling them they owe money. Whoever he/she is I bet it'll be a biggun!

[CitroJim]

They're waiting until after Christmas for that one Paul...

[dnsey]

HMRC have previously stated that they never e-mail clients, so anything like this is sure to be a scam.

[addo]

I've got one in the other direction; stonewalled the tax orifice and told them to use the legal rights they have, to access my income/banking details (rather than me be bothered discussing it over the 'phone). If they want my money, they can jolly well earn it - just like we have to.

Lazy sods didn't, instead making a wild guess at extra payment required which I knocked back with appropriate derision - they then handed it over to a debt collection firm.

My ploy now is to pay the incorrectly assessed amount (almost £6K) and THEN drop them in the doo-doo via relevant Ombudsmen and opposition pollies. Should be good entertainment, and they'll have to roll the overpayment into credit against future tax - hopefully earning interest in the meantime.