ARE YOU GETTING SCAMMED?

Are you Independent contract or self-employed who has filed for tax return in the past or planning to do so? Even if you are a tax filer, it’s often hard to keep track of self-employed book keeping regardless you paid taxes or not to HMRC. Usually we have accountants which are able to care of our messes. This state usually makes people vulnerable and makes you more approachable for scammers. These scammers usually contact individuals through an automated call or email or text message or via post about debt collection. They threaten people in thinking they owe a lot of tax and HMRC has informed the authorities but all of this can supposedly stop if you contact them on the number given and get instructions on how to pay your debt, which is obviously not the real HMRC contact number and people end up paying to the scammers.

PHONE SCAM

Telephone scam seems like one of the easiest and known way. We all have a basic understanding of how many telemarketing companies’ functions work and how they would call you at an unexpected time of the day, not all but many people experience this quite often but not like this. These scammers specifically design these phones calls to scare people. How a short automated phone call (recorded by scam artists) can seem to make you believe that this is HMRC contacting you.

Landline numbers in households are more likely to receive these calls. People should take precautions in these situations and never call them back of their given number. Older citizens are more likely targeted as it’s already hard to keep track of the procedures. These automated calls usually start of very direct with pauses between sentences and directs towards the consequences you will face for not paying your taxes regarding debt collection and the HMRC has contacted the police and there is a warrant out for your arrest unless you call them at the number they would give you, where you would be reeled in to pay your debts to the scammers if contacted them back. HMRC will never call you like this warning of consequences and not mentioning your reference number. If there was ever an arrest warrant out for you, the police would contact you first not HMRC. They would also try to convince you that they have been auditing your taxes and your numbers don’t add up and for that reason also your assets have been frozen. The scammers also claim that the police will raid your home in 30 minutes or less, so this gives you very little time to think and people usually act on impulse and contact them. They have none to go as far as telling people they have been put on a no fly list.

Not all calls are automated, if you are asked to give your personal information, it’s best to hang up the phone right there and contact HMRC with a different number, The best possible way to handle this situation is if you suspect the caller is from a scammer, the first thing you do is hang up the call and contact HMRC through their official number which can be found on their website. Then HMRC will work on tracking down these scammers and prosecute them. Similar to calls, these voice mails serve the same purpose, these wait to haunt and shock you. HMRC will only call you asking about your payments or debts about which you are aware of, or just even about how to pay self-assessment penalty. Which is the most you would be asked about if ever contacted by the HMRC, yes indeed usually HMRC also contacts people through automated calls, but never asked for personal information and also start the call with reference number of the tax filer.

TYPES OF PHONE SCAMS

Upon many people reporting these scammers HMRC has come across two types scams:

It’s best not to respond to these calls or messages, look for signs if a call seems like a scam. Never disclose private information.

It’s always the best idea to inform the HMRC regarding the call you received also the number that they called from.

EMAILS AND TEXT MESSAGE SCAM

The email is specifically designed to scare people on the basis of debt collection, they make it appear as it’s an official document which clearly points towards you as a criminal. HMRC or even your bank would never ask for your pin or any sort of personal info, so don’t give it to anyone. As even a tiny speck of information can open doors for scammers. Clicking on links and downloading any files of the emails is not recommended. Replying to these emails or text messages isn’t even a good idea.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Reporting these scams to HMRC is the best possible chance of stopping these scammers. More than 55,000 scammers have been reported to HMRC in the past year and the phone lines they were using were shut down immediately. It’s best to forward such emails to HMRC at [email protected], in the cases of text message forward it to 60599.  Same as for the calls you can contact the HMRC via their email [email protected] or at their number available at their official website. Whenever reporting to HMRC always provide your phone number, the scammer’s number, the date and time and also the conversation that happened between you and the callers. If required to give details about yourself when reporting the scammers, just provide a brief detail not personal details. It’s also best to let HMRC know what you might have told the scammers during the conversation of call or even if you gave them any information about yourself.