HMRC has warned young adults to be wary of tax rebate scams
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has warned young adults to be wary of text message and phone call scams as people try to impersonate the government body.
It is at this time of year when there are legitimate rebates being processed, that fraudsters target vulnerable people with fake messages, HMRC says.
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And because younger generations often manager their finances via their smart phones, they are particularly susceptible, it warns.
In 2018, the governing body received around 250,000 reports of these type of scams.
It has also reminded people that it never requests bank details by text or phone and that it is shutting down hundreds of websites a week associated with these "phishing scams".
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"We are determined to protect honest people from these fraudsters who will stop at nothing to make their phishing scams appear legitimate," says head of customer services at HMRC, Angela MacDonald.
"If you receive one of these emails or texts, don't respond and report it to HMRC so that more online criminals are stopped in their tracks."