It was only at the end of last month that we heard of
people falsely offering council tax refunds to people living on the Isle of Wight.
Today HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is warning residents on the Isle of Wight to beware, after receiving reports that thieves are making phone calls pretending to be the taxman.
They claim that the taxpayers are due a tax rebate, and ask for their bank card details over the phone.
Never give bank details
Clearly you should never pass details of your bank account over the phone.
If you do, you risk having your bank account emptied or your personal details sold on to other organised criminal gangs.
HMRC report that in the last three months, they’ve closed down over 180 Websites that were responsible for sending out the fake tax rebate emails.
Chris Hopson, Director of Customer Contact at HMRC said:
“We only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. We never use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. We strongly urge anyone receiving such a phone call not to give any information to the caller, but report it to the police straightaway.
“If customers receive an email claiming to be from HMRC, we recommend they send it to us for investigation before deleting it permanently.”
If you’ve been the subject of an email or phone scam, report the matter to your bank/card issuer as soon as possible.
