Nearly 800,000 tax scams were reported in the last year, HMRC revealed. It said that fraudsters use self assessment to attempt to steal money or personal information from taxpayers.
In the last year, HMRC received almost 360,000 bogus tax rebate referrals. HMRC will send more than four million emails and SMS messages this week to self assessment taxpayers, prompting them to think about how they intend to pay their tax bill.
It is warning taxpayers ‘not to be taken in’ by malicious emails, phone calls or texts, and to not mistake them for genuine HMRC communications.
Myrtle Lloyd, Director General for Customer Services at HMRC, said: ‘Scams come in many forms. Some threaten immediate arrest for tax evasion, others offer a tax rebate. Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so if you are in any doubt whether the email, phone call or text is genuine, you can check the ‘HMRC scams’ advice on GOV.UK and find out how to report them to us.’
Meanwhile, new law has been introduced to help protect pension savers from scammers
New rules to help protect pension savers from scammers have become law.
Under the regulations, pension trustees and scheme managers will be given the power to stop suspicious transfers before cash gets into the hands of fraudsters.
Fraudsters frequently offer ‘too good to be true’ incentives to pension savers, such as free pension reviews, early access to pension cash and other time-limited offers. Lured in by these bogus offers, individuals are then tricked into transferring their savings into a scam scheme and defrauded out of their money.
Between January and May 2021, pension scam losses totalling over £2.2 million were reported to Action Fraud.
The new regulations will take force on 30 November. From this date, trustees and scheme managers will be able to prevent transfer requests if suspicious activity is suspected by giving it a ‘red flag’. If a red flag is present, the transfer cannot go ahead.
Where fraud is suspected, trustees and scheme managers will be able to pause transfer requests by giving it an ‘amber flag’. In this scenario, the pension saver will need to prove they have taken scam specific guidance from the free Money and Pensions Service before the transfer can go ahead. This is the only way a transfer can then proceed.
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