A scam letter sent pretending to be from the HMRC tax office has been sent to
businesses across the UK, with an expert saying it’s the most believable letter he’s
ever seen.
The letter says that it needs to verify “financial information”, claiming to be a tax compliance
scheme asking the victim to send over VAT returns and bank statements.
Once receiving this information, scammers may then be able to steal the company’s identity
and take out loans in its name- or even take funds directly from the owner’s bank account.
The scam was flagged by Azets accountancy firm, who posted it on LinkedIn to bring
awareness to the letter which had been sent to one of its clients.
Director Sajid Ghufoor told The i Paper: “The scammers went out of their way to use
genuine HMRC team details and this could trick people into thinking it’s really from HMRC.”
A colleague became wary after noticing that an email address on the letter had never been
used by HMRC.
The address which reads companies-review@hmrc-taxchecks.org, fails to use a gov
ending.
It is not clear how many letters had been sent out and what businesses the fraudsters were
targeting, with Mr Ghufoor saying they may be scamming companies at “random.”
HMRChasnowissued an alert, warning people that scammers will often put pressure on
the victim by rushing them to send money and they will sometimes threaten arrest over the
phone.
“This is probably the best scam letter I have seen, as this time they have sought to use a
HMRCteam and use the right technical legislation and language- previously others have
used non-UK tax legislation,” added Mr Ghufoor.