HMRC has warned young people in the UK to ‘stay vigilant’ in order to avoid falling victim to tax refund scams.
According to HMRC, criminals often target young individuals or the elderly as these groups of people are ‘more likely to be less familiar with the UK tax system’.
HMRC has warned taxpayers to be especially vigilant about so-called ‘Springtime refund scams’. In the Spring of 2018 alone, 250,000 reports of tax scams were received by HMRC, equating to almost 2,500 per day.
Criminals often bombard taxpayers with tax refund scams during the months of April and May – the time when HMRC processes legitimate rebates.
Individuals have been warned to be wary of text messages, calls and voicemails purporting to be from HMRC. These are often designed to extract personal or financial information from the taxpayer.
Commenting on the issue, Angela MacDonald, Head of Customer Services at HMRC, said: ‘We are determined to protect honest people from these fraudsters who will stop at nothing to make their phishing scams appear legitimate.
‘HMRC is currently shutting down hundreds of phishing sites a month. If you receive one of these emails or texts, don’t respond and report it to HMRC so that more online criminals are stopped in their tracks.’