Taxpayers warned HMRC scams on the rise in 2021

As the financial year draws to a close, fraudsters are increasingly impersonating the taxman.

Con artists are hijacking legitimate tax deadlines to target consumers and steal their personal details and cash, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has warned.

It has found an increase in scams since the beginning of the year. 

Common scams include offers of tax rebates that do not exist, fake support or grants, or threatened legal action over unpaid tax.

This year a new scam emerged - criminals calling to say taxpayers’ national insurance number had been used fraudulently in a bid to steal money or gain access to personal details.

Fraudsters can strike at any time, but HMRC figures showed key tax deadlines, like the end of January for self-assessment returns, are exploited by scammers to flood taxpayers with malicious communications.

Scam attempts using fake texts, emails and calls, by fraudsters masquerading as the UK's tax authority, have surged.

Phone scam reports to HMRC tripled compared with December.

Scammers tried 33,053 times in January via the telephone, in addition to 46,210 phishing emails and 26,643 suspicious text messages during the same month.

The number of bogus text message reports was twice the next highest level seen during any month of the last year.

An HMRC spokesman said: "If someone calls, emails or texts claiming to be from HMRC, saying that you can claim financial help, are due a tax refund or owe tax, or asks for bank or other personal details, it might be a scam.

“If you can't verify the identity of the caller, HMRC recommends that you do not speak to them.”

• How to spot a pensions scam
• Are older football fans more vulnerable to scams?
• Are you saving enough for retirement? Our calculator can help you find out

Separate research from the banking industry-funded police unit prevented almost £20 million of fraud and arrested over 100 suspected criminals in 2020, including several involved in scams exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Over 700 social media accounts linked to fraudulent activity were taken down, of which over 250 were money mule recruiters. The unit recovered 18,175 compromised UK card numbers and seized £2.59 million of assets.

The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) targets the organised criminal gangs responsible for fraud and is made up of officers from the City of London Police, Metropolitan Police Service and staff from the UK Finance trade body.

Over the past year, 54 criminals were convicted following successful DCPCU investigations, with a total of 50 years in prison handed out to defendants in fraud cases investigated by the unit.

The convictions include a criminal involved in a large-scale campaign sending out fake text messages claiming to offer tax refunds from the UK government due to the pandemic. 

Other successful operations by the unit include the sentencing of a cheque fraud gang to a combined total of more than 24 years in prison, and the jailing of a courier scam fraudster who spent £5,000 in a two-day period on cards stolen from three elderly victims.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Robinson, the head of the DCPCU, said: “Criminal gangs have callously targeted people’s finances and anxieties during a year which proved uniquely difficult for many.”