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"Couple nearly gets caught out in credit card tax scam"

By admin | August 24th, 2009 | Credit Cards

A couple from the UK has explained how they nearly got caught out by a credit card tax scam, after receiving an email that claimed to be from HM Revenue and Customs, and which claimed that they were entitled to a rebate on their taxes.

The email asked the couple for their credit card details, but the couple was astute enough to check out the email with HM Revenue and Customs before providing their details, at which point they realised that it was a scam.

The email asking for the credit card details was sent to Lyn and Gerry Grant, from Fangfoss Pottery.

Mrs Grant stated: “Gerry rang them up and the number on the bottom of the email was correct, he got through to HMRC. But HMRC said they never send emails out asking for credit card numbers. We were a bit suspicious of the email, one reason was because of the wording, they had used the phrase ‘expiration date’ which we thought odd.”

She added: “They wanted all our details and credit card number to credit us with a refund. It’s very clever because it said allow three to nine days for the transaction, by which time they could have used our card to its limit.

We’re warning other people not to get involved if they receive an email like this because it’s something HMRC don’t actually do.

It’s scary, it sounded legitimate to us.”

An official from HMRC said: “We only ever contact customers who are due a refund in writing by post. We never use emails, telephone calls or external companies in these circumstances. I would strongly encourage anyone receiving such an email to immediately send it to us for investigation and delete it from their computer.”

Tags: credit card tax scam, Credit Cards, credit card tax

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