HMRC Scam
In the past 18 months residents via the Sefton Crime Alert have been warned about phone calls supposedly from HMRC saying the recipients of the call owed money for unpaid taxes. However they could avoid being taken to court if they immediately paid the money in iTunes vouchers.
On BBC ‘Breakfast’ a representative from HMRC was interviewed about this ‘new scam’, where the scammers were targeting mostly older and vulnerable people, had been highlighted as a growing problem by the Tax office. The interviewer asked if the Tax officers ever contacted people by phone and the representative admitted that on occasions they did to discuss tax issues.
Last Thursday a Sefton pensioner received a recorded phone message supposedly from HMRC. A female stated, that because the recipient of the call had not paid her taxes, HMRC had no alternative but to start Court proceedings. The caller suggested that the pensioner should press a number on her phone to contact her case worker. The resident who was aware of the scam from receiving the earlier Sefton Crime Alerts became suspicious and put the phone down. She then rang 1471, the call came from a mobile phone.
Please be aware of this latest development. This type of call can be extremely worrying to people who are unaware of the scam.
OTS News on Social Media