January is a busy month for the HMRC, accountants and people who have yet to file their tax return or make payments on advance.
Unfortunately, it is also a busy month for fraudsters taking advantage of this fact. So do not be surprised if you are bombarded with emails claiming to be from HM Revenue & Customs, informing you that you are entitled to a tax refund and requesting you to visit the 'HMRC website' to enter your bank details in order to retrieve it. Such emails normally look frighteningly authentic as you can see from the picture below … but they are not from HMRC
The fact is, HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate by email, or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email. Therefore, do not visit the website contained within the email or disclose any personal or payment information and do not forward the email, but simply delete it.
According the HMRC, there is a large selection of fake email addresses used to distribute the tax rebate emails. These are typical examples:
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