"Tax refund" scam

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:01:44 GMT

I thought this may be amusing in this context:

Dear Family and Friends.
As we move closer to the end of another year, I wanted to thank you for all the e-mails you have forwarded to me over the past year.

I must send a big thank you, to whoever sent me the one about rat shit in the glue on envelopes, because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it all to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. But that will change once I receive the £15,000 that Bill Gates and Microsoft are sending me for participating in their special email programs. Or from the senior bank clerk in Nigeria who wants me to split seven million dollars with me for pretending to be a long lost relative of a customer who died overseas.

And I need no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me.

I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward emails to seven friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer drink Coca-Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I can no longer buy petrol without taking a friend along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling up.

I no longer go to shopping centres because someone will drug me with a food sample and rob me.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number and then I'll get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan .

I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my bum.

I can't even pick up the five pounds I found dropped in the car park because it was probably put there by a crazed axe murderer waiting under my car to grab my leg.

If you don't send this email to at least 144,000 people in the next 10 minutes, the following will happen:
A large pelican with an acute case of diarrhoea will sit on your head and fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a most unsightly hairy hump. I know this because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbour’s ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's plumber – and it was on Good Morning Australia.

By the way.... did you know that a South American scientist has, after a lengthy study, discovered that people with low IQs who don't have enough sex, always read their emails while holding the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 13:47:36 GMT

[quote user="grumpyoldman"]

What is disturbing is the acquisition of the email addresses of the self employed tax payers c/o HMRC?, and the same thing happened last year which suggests the problem was not fixed?.

Nah, the phishers are using an email address of mine which HMRC definitely do not have.

[/quote]

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Clive Ansell — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 08:43:30 GMT

[quote user="Wren"]

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]She then posted items (to Nigeria[/quote]

Scam avoidance tip no 6. If it involves Nigeria do not even touch it with your worst enemy's bargepole.

[/quote]

Yes I know. Should have sounded alarm bells, but didn't. Guess it's a learning curve, and doubt she'll do it again

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Wren — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 08:39:04 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]She then posted items (to Nigeria[/quote]

Scam avoidance tip no 6. If it involves Nigeria do not even touch it with your worst enemy's bargepole.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Braden Collins — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 07:01:43 GMT

[quote user="Clive Ansell"]

I gather that the scammers use computer software that generates millions of email addresses at random every minute, knowing that some will be valid ones. if you make up prefixes of names for @aol.com, @gmail.com etc , many will work.

[/quote]

You can buy email lists online quite easily. Pay $x for sour many million email addresses. Send out an email to them all and you only need a fraction of a percent response rate.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Clive Ansell — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 15:57:31 GMT

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Linda Filshie — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 15:15:13 GMT

It's exactly the same as scammers who claim your RBS/Nationwide/Barclays/HSBC account has been compromised. They don't know that you're self employed, they're taking a well judged punt that a percentage will be and a percentage of those will be naive enough to respond. Nothing more sinister than bog-standard phishing.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

grumpyoldman — Sun, 08 Jan 2017 10:43:03 GMT

What is disturbing is the acquisition of the email addresses of the self employed tax payers c/o HMRC?, and the same thing happened last year which suggests the problem was not fixed?.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Clive Ansell — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 11:50:20 GMT

[quote user="Hannah Wynne Richards"]Thanks for the warning Evelyn I would probably be the 1st to fall for that scam................simply because I'd be over the moon with joy to find my own money being returned.[/quote]

As I say; if its too good to be true it usually is!

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Hannah Wynne Richards — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 08:48:10 GMT

Thanks for the warning Evelyn I would probably be the 1st to fall for that scam................simply because I'd be over the moon with joy to find my own money being returned.

Wynne

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Clive Ansell — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 08:00:46 GMT

A nurse I sometimes work with got caught out by a similar scam with ebay/paypal.

She sold 2 mobiles phones on ebay to the same person for a much higher price than expected. Received emails from both ebay and paypal saying that payment had been received and was in her account. She clicked on the email link, and sure enough all seemed fine, money was there.

She then posted items (to Nigeria), and only later found out the money wasn't in her account after all - the emails receipts were fake and the links within were bogus. To add insult to injury, they were then able to access her Paypal account, and from that her bank account too. Police not interested.

Lessons learned;

1) Always, always, check the account directly and never from an email link.

2) If something is too good to be true, it usually is the case.

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Neil Wheadon — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 07:24:59 GMT

[quote user="mariette asselbergs"]You can report it if you can be bothered[/quote]

If everybody did, this type of thing would stop much quicker, it's easier than you think

In this case E mail phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

I found this in seconds using a google search and have reported several times in the past, because without being alerted how are they supposed to stop it?

It's like the volunteers filling potholes, we can't just all sit there thinking someone else will fix that.

Neil

RE: "Tax refund" scam

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 22:40:31 GMT

Never follow a link in an email. Ever. Then you can't end up somewhere you didn't want to be. (Sorry Arlo!)

RE: "Tax refund" scam

mariette asselbergs — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 22:18:37 GMT

Yep, got the same twice. Is a scam. You can report it if you can be bothered.

Mariette