Fake HMRC letters
HMRC is alerting business owners to a fraudulent letter being circulated by scammers posing as the tax authorities which is seeking to obtain confidential business information and bank statements.
The letter, which is sent using both counterfeit HMRC letterheaded paper and a fake logo is falsely claiming to originate from the ‘Indiv and Small Business Compliance’ team at HMRC.
One of the easiest ways to identify the fake letter is by examining the email address provided, which is clearly fraudulent. Legitimate HMRC email addresses always include the government domain name gov.uk.
Fake HMRC Letters – how do you identify the fake letter?
The fake HMRC letters instruct the recipient to verify their financial details by submitting various documents to confirm their business identity.
In a brazen move, the scammers assert that the letter is part of a ‘government initiative aimed at verifying declared income’ to ‘prevent tax evasion and tax fraud.’
The letter requests digital copies of a wide range of sensitive documents, including business bank statements for the past 13 months, VAT returns, and full profit and loss accounts. Smaller companies that report under micro accounts or filleted accounts rules wouldn’t normally have these documents available on Companies House.
The letter also demands digital copies of passports or driving licenses, raising concerns about potential identity theft. The scammers stress in their correspondence that ‘paper copies and screenshots will not be accepted.’
In an even bolder and somewhat condescending closing statement, the letter claims: ‘Once we have verified your information, we will let you know if we are satisfied with the information you have provided us or if we require any further documents.’
Scam letters of this type are often poorly written or use English which often alters the reader to the fact that it may be a scam. In this instance the letter’s English is relatively good and the letter is in fact well-written, however, some of the terminology is unusual. The scammers also slip up grammatically by saying ‘information you have provided us,’ which is gramatically incorrect.
The most obvious sign that the letter is a scam is the response email address, which is clearly not affiliated with HMRC.The scammers are using the fake email address of companies-review@hmrc-taxchecks.org
Moreover, HMRC rarely requests information via email, preferring to communicate through official letters or the online portal and digital tax accounts.
If you are in receipt of a communication pertaining to be from HMRC and you would like to verify whether it is indeed legitimate you will find lots of information here on the HMRC website. https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing
If you would like to talk to us about your personal tax affairs and how we might assist you with either self-assessment or company taxation, please contact us on 020 7870 9050 or email us amd a member of our team will contact you as soon as they are avaialble.
