12 million Brits given HMRC tax warning after people were told 'refunds are owed'

Being told the tax man owes you a refund is always music to the ears of Brits.

But the excitement of potentially receiving cash back from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) may cause you to let your guard down.

Enter the evil fraudsters who want to steal your hard earned money with scam texts, emails and phone calls.

A whopping 12 million people in the UK have been warned to be vigilant after a dramatic spike in swindles over the last year.

HMRC received more than 130,000 reports of tax scams from September 2022 to September 2023.

And 58,000 of those were offering unsuspecting Brits bogus tax rebates - talk about preying on our weak spot!

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As the deadline to submit a Self Assessment tax return draws closer, HMRC have warned people to beware of posers.

Those who tally up their own tax returns have until January 31 2024 to get their forms in.

Scammers are using the looming deadline to their advantage and are hoping people will fall for their offer of a tax rebate.

Other popular methods of trickery include asking customers to update their tax details or even threatening them with immediate arrest for tax evasion.

HMRC told Brits to make sure they know exactly who they're talking to before handing over their details.

The Director General for Customer Services, Myrtle Lloyd, said: "HMRC is reminding customers to be wary of approaches by fraudsters in the run up to the Self Assessment deadline.

"Criminals are great pretenders who try and dupe people by sending emails, phone calls and texts which mimic government messages to make them appear authentic.

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"Unexpected contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so take your time and check HMRC scams advice on GOV.UK."

You can report any concerning correspondence to HMRC by forwarding scam texts to 60599 and sending on any bogus emails to [email protected].

If fraudsters try and con you over the phone, report the cold call to HMRC via the government website.

HMRC said it has already dealt with 60,000 of these.

The tax office will never ask you to give personal information over the phone or on an email.

HMRC said it has already managed to get 25,000 malicious web pages taken down over the last year.

If you sense something just isn't quite right, it's best to get directly in touch with HMRC to confirm everything is hunky-dory.