Scam warning

Desert Orchid

Desert Orchid

Senior Jockey
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
24,844


This morning I got an email purporting to be from HMRC, complete with HMRC email address, telling me they're trying to send me a tax rebate. I phoned HMRC for advice.

IT IS A SCAM.

If you get such an email do not reply or click on any links it contains. I moved it to 'junk' and from there blocked future emails from the sender. At that point I could see that it was a phishing scam.

It is very convincing, I have to admit, but I know I'm not due a rebate!
 
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HMRC will never contact you by email. Neither will they phone you with a recorded message saying that you owe tax and need to press a button to be put in touch with your case officer to avoid legal action. This is another current phishing scam.
 
I got this one a few months ago and may have been caught out by it had I not received a letter from them a few days earlier advising me that I had underpaid and they were taking it back!

There is a Tesco Insurance one doing the rounds at present which seems to direct you to the Tesco website (URL address appears to be correct compared to the actual Tesco website), asking you enter postcode and date of birth to access your new documents.
 
On a related matter, there's a very well known racing charity that accepts credit card donations online and invites the donor to pay the 5% commission to the credit card company. When I asked them for a bank account number at one of their racecourse stands so that I could make a direct transfer they thought I was joking. When I then wrote to them asking for account details so I could set up a monthly transfer they declined to give them to me and suggested I pay by cheque instead.

Are they right to be cautious or are they being silly? Here in Belgium it's completely normal to settle bills by direct transfer from one account to the other. I haven't used a cheque for more than 20 years.
 
Grey said:
On a related matter, there's a very well known racing charity that accepts credit card donations online and invites the donor to pay the 5% commission to the credit card company. When I asked them for a bank account number at one of their racecourse stands so that I could make a direct transfer they thought I was joking. When I then wrote to them asking for account details so I could set up a monthly transfer they declined to give them to me and suggested I pay by cheque instead.

Are they right to be cautious or are they being silly? Here in Belgium it's completely normal to settle bills by direct transfer from one account to the other. I haven't used a cheque for more than 20 years.
Click to expand...

Theres very little someone can do with your bank details, unless you are lax with security and give them other details too. About all they can do is set up a direct debit which you can claim back easily.
Your bank details are on every cheque sent, so if it was that bad to give them out why would banks ever issue cheque books.
 
I sent my first cheque in 9 or 10 years back in November to settle the bill on a horse I owned - everything else I've done has been via bank transfer, DD or standing order.

Sounds like staff weren't told they could take bank transfers or didn't have the bank details to hand on the day Grey.

Martin
 
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