George and Irene McKirdle have sent us a message about scam messages coming through on their mobile, supposedly from HMRC.

However, they realised that this message was a scam, as the link attached was not to the official HMRC website.

SCAM MESSAGE:
HMRC: We haven’t been able process your pending tax refund. Please visit our secure link. https://[link redacted]/ to verify your details

Never click on any links you get via unsolicited emails or text messages, even if the message states “This is a secure link” – it doesn’t mean it is necessarily so!

(If you do want to know if you have a Tax Refund, you should always visit the website directly to check by doing a Google search, or typing it in in the address bar of your browser. Sometimes fake links in emails can be hard to spot, so this is the best advice.)

The scam here is that the link given takes you to a website to “verify your details” which is a pretend site to steal your information and credit card details, as the site wants you to enter your card details for verification purposes.

More information from HMRC:

  • recognise the signs – genuine organisations like banks and HMRC will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or bank details
  • stay safe – do not give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in emails you weren’t expecting
  • take action – forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and texts to 60599, or contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 to report any suspicious calls or use its online fraud reporting tool
  • check GOV.UK for information on how to avoid and report scams and recognise genuine HMRC contact
  • if you think you have received an HMRC-related phishing/bogus email or text message, you can check it against the examples shown in this guide

See the information on their warning page too:

www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-warns-on-tax-refund-scams

If you have received any scams by mobile, please let us know so we can share.

Thank you George and Irene!