Fake HMRC scam

[Queenofthedrivensnow]

Just been very shaken by what I believe to be a scam call alleging they were hmrc. Telling me I should instruct a criminal solicitor as I was about to be served at my place of work.

They knew my name but that's about all.

Voicemail from 'Linda white at hmrc' I called them as cms leave a similar vm.

I was accused of tax evasion and not checking my p60 for paying correct tax.

No letters ever just this weird call.

My manager had to calm me down and google the number 01865600489 and scam warnings came up straight away.

Please be aware!!

Anyone else had this one?

No phone call but every week receive an email which says we have your password xyz (it's a really old password of mine) and it goes on to say they have accessed my contacts and installed a bug on my computer which has accessed my camera and filmed me ' having a good time' while watching dirty videos. If I don't pay they will send the video to all my contacts and how it will ruin my life.

I just delete and block but I can see how it terrifies people, the first one I read really shook me and I don't even watch the stuff

We've had 2 recorded message calls this week from a well-spoken female which said HMRC was filing a lawsuit against "you" (no name given) and to press 1 to speak to your caseworker.
I put down the phone at this point and reported it to the HMRC phishing site.

@StandardPoodle yes they said lawsuit too. They knew my name. I'm really up for calling back and recording the call to see how far they will take it. What should I do with it though?

For those of you who are worried about falling victim to this sort of thing, HMRC will always, always write to you if there is a problem. They'll send repeated letters if they don't get a response.

They will NEVER ring you out of the blue to say you're going to court.

I'm an accountant and I can tell you that for someone to get to the point where HMRC would be considering legal action you'd either have to be committing serious fraud or evasion (in which case it would hardly be unexpected), or you'd have had to have ignored more red flags than a Soviet military parade.

If you ever receive anything like this from your bank / HMRC / your phone provider / internet provider which seems a bit off, then don't engage - hang up, google the official number, and call them back.

You would have had several months of correspondence and contact from HMRC before being committed for tax fraud. They are not that brutal.

@LadyPasserine @Lockheart thank you I hope people find this thread for reference.

They caught me in the middle of v difficult case work that I was already upset about. On another day I probably would have been more robust - I'm still so shocked and never so aware of how at risk I am from this kind of criminality when I thought I wasn't

This happened to a friend, he googled the number and it was HMRC, he rang HMRC and they said the number had been cloned.

He wasn’t about to be arrested or anything.

But when I heard I thought omg I’d have been hysterical to get such a phone call!

@fuzzywuzzy really made my heart pound. They wouldn't get £20k out of me I have about 20p!!!

People like this make me sick. I got an email allegedly from my CEO the other week saying they had changed their bank account and would like their pay to go into there (didn't give the details). They had sent it from an email account ceo1@..... there is no way our ceo would get and email account like that but also, why would they not use their own work account like normal?! I didn't fall for it 😂

I just want to keep bumping as my scam seems very current. I'm still wobbly!

Thing is, scams are becoming more and more elaborate. There are some scams where you wonder how in God’s name anyone ever fell for them, like the millionaire Nigerian prince or the lottery you never entered ones. But these scams sound so incredibly official that while the fact that they’re scams does spread over time it’s very easy to see how some people might fall for them.

I had a friend who kept getting the voicemails and although he knew it was a scam and doesn’t even work so wouldn’t have been in a position to owe HMRC anyway, the threatening nature of the calls is enough to upset anyone.

PS: my eXH used to have a habit of toying with the computer ones telling him that his computer had a serious virus etc etc. It was a bit of a challenge for him to see how long he could keep them on the line.

He works in IT so could play along without even needing to be sat at a computer. his record was apparently 26 minutes. One day one of them told him that he had been preventing them from delivering a valuable service, to which he responded that actually he believed he was offering a service because while they were wasting time talking to him they weren’t scamming someone else...

I had a recorded message on my answerphone yesterday saying I was about to be prosecuted for tax evasion. Deleted it. I am pretty sure that you would get letters (lots of letters) first.

There was a case I read about recently where a guy fell for it, and even believed that the tax office would demand payment in iTunes vouchers

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/hmrc-scam-phone-call-conned-1779567

I heard of someone who was called by BT and told he was due a refund but they'd refund too much (Wasnt even a customer of BT). They told him to get £1000 of iTunes vouchers and then give them the codes over the phone. He was going to do it, only Tesco wouldnt let him have that many so he was only conned out of £200.

@exexpat Jesus! Not sure I'd fall for buying iTunes vouchers!

The number they called me on is dead now

I've reported it to hmrc now

I had the same call.
Interesting as I don't pay tax.
Told them to do something anatomically impossible and hung up.
But I can see how upsetting it would be to vulnerable people.

If you go on to YouTube there are a load of guys who play them along and take the piss out of them brilliantly.

Thank you for writing this post, just today Sep 2020 I got a call from 'Linda white at HMRC' Its a very clear/scary voice mail to get, about not paying correctly but with a bit of research online I have concluded, this is a scam. People be careful.

I had the same call but I knew it was a scam.

I just said "Send them round if you want, I dare you"

Still waiting.......