Whereas...
Whereas in fact.. when the revenue do send you a refund that just stick it into your account with no explanation whatsoever.
UK taxpayers were officially warned on Friday to have nothing to do with supposed tax refund emails that have begun circulating since the deadline for self-assessment tax returns expired on Monday. The scam emails claim the recipients (prospective marks) are entitled to a tax refund, which can supposedly be claimed after …
Maybe that's how it works for you, but I had a refund just before Christmas, and first I got notification that I was due something back, and that it would be sent separately. A few days later a cheque arrived (surprisingly, since it was sent during the bad weather and pre-Christmas backlog).
I got one of those...
this was the copy
==================
TAX RETURN FOR THE YEAR 2010
RECALCULATION OF YOUR TAX REFUND
HMRC 2010-2011
LOCAL OFFICE No. 3819
TAX CREDIT OFFICER: Lisa Frank
TAX REFUND ID NUMBER: 381716209
REFUND AMOUNT: 244.79 GBP
Dear Applicant,
The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential and as
applicable, copyright in these is reserved to HM Revenue & Customs.
Unless expressly authorised by us, any further dissemination or
distribution of this email or its attachments is prohibited.
If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please reply to
inform us that you have received this email in error and then delete it
without retaining any copy.
I am sending this email to announce: After the last annual calculation of
your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a
tax refund of 244.79 GBP
You have attached the tax return form with the TAX REFUND NUMBER ID: 381716209,
complete the tax return form attached to this message.
After completing the form, please submit the form by clicking the SUBMIT
button on form and allow us 5-9 business days in order to process it.
Our head office address can be found on our web site at HM Revenue & Customs: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk
Sincerely,
Lisa Frank
HMRC Tax Credit Office
Preston
TAX REFUND ID: UK381716209-HMRC
=========
There was an attached .zip file containing a very official looking form
I new there was no way this was from HMRC as I probably owe them tax rather than the other way round
The action on the form posted its contents to http://mybookscity.com/images/lego.php
and there was a hidden email address massimocascio@googlemail.com
I dutifully filled in the form with the details of a Mr Mike Litoris and the email address has been signed up for all sorts of unsavories...
I also reported it to phishing at HMRC.
This is not my experience of HMRC. If you do you your SA return online you are notified instantly whether you are to receive an refund or if you owe - as a part of the submission process. This is then followed up by a formal letter 3 or 4 days later.
This year, my refund was in my bank account before the letter had arrived.
Very efficient.
Well this isnt the case, i did my SA form online on 22/01/11 and the repayment was available as of 31/01/11 so i reclaimed my repayment in full!
After waiting over 48 hours for the system to procceed with my repayment request i was able to request repayment in full again.
So i thought that maybe the request hadnt gone through so i requested my repayment again and i got exactly the same thing all over again!
After another 48 hours i was able to request my repayment YET AGAIN! but i did not.
The HMRC then said that if the repayment had been requested then i would not be able to request the repayment, so why can i still request it?
It has been ten working days since the first request and 4 days since the second request and i have had no letter and no payment into my bank account.
What doesnt help is that there is nothing on the HMRC website to help me and talking to the help line doesnt help either as you are told something different everytime.
So now tell me and anyone else in this situation that the HMRC are efficent, WHAT RUBBISH!
Can anyone help or give me some sort of decent answer.
@jimbarter
I have to say that is an impressive phish compared to the vast amount of grammatical or spelling errors present in most examples. The copyright notice at the beginning is also a nice touch.
Whoever created that must be in the top percentile of competence in the phishing community.
I dunno -
generally speaking the "copyright" etc bits that are attached to emails sent from a company go on the BOTTOM of the email not right at the top after the "Dear Sir" or whatever.
And people in the UK generally use "£" and not "GBP".
And the inconsistencies like having both "TAX REFUND ID NUMBER" and "TAX REFUND NUMBER ID".
But you are quite correct - they are usually so obvious mainly due to the ridiculous spellings and grammatical errors!
May not be doing the rounds at this precise moment in time, but you also need to watch out for people who phish for your hmrc website login details. They use these to submit a fake tax return on your behalf and ask for the refund to be paid to their bank account. Of course the tax return will contain false information, and HMRC will investigate later and ask for the money back together with the tax you actually owe and misdeclaration penalties.
I guess this one will start up again in April when the new tax year starts.