HMRC scam emails

Thomas Buckley-Smith was recently invited to speak on the BBC Radio Norfolk breakfast show about the vital topic of email scams.

With the important self-assessment tax deadline approaching at the end of January, now is a prime time for scam attempts to take place where scammers aim to get taxpayers to be duped into providing vital personal and financial information which can then be used to fraudulently take money from bank accounts.

Here is a breakdown of what Thomas and host Chris Goreham discussed.

HMRC scam emails

Do HMRC scam emails only happen in January?

Over December and January is a prime time for scammers to attempt to use the self-assessment tax deadline as the reason for their scams. However, there is no reason why other financial and tax deadlines would not be the prompt for similar scam emails to be sent to you. Remember that HMRC require an email address for you to have an online account so you could be prone to a phishing email or similar at any time of the year.

Are HMRC fake emails hard to spot?

Yes they can be. This area is quite challenging given the high number of emails we all receive every day as well as the fact that HMRC will at relevant points of the year communicate with you via email.

Rather than automatically assume that the email is a scam because it comes from HMRC, it is more important to think about how to spot if the email is not genuine. Here are a couple of things to consider…

  • HMRC has a lot of excellent guidance on their online portal and website on how to spot the signs of scam emails. Read more
  • A fake or scam email will typically look to make a play on the email address used by the sender. Any email sent via HMRC will come from their official domain ‘@hmrc.gov.uk’. An example of a fake email address would be ‘support@advice.reply.hmrc.gov.uk’.

Will I get emails from HMRC?

Yes you will. Like any organisation, HMRC will carry out a large amount of communications and email is their preferred option for this. They will want taxpayers to have their own online tax account and as part of this, it is mandatory to have an email address so they can send you important information and notifications.

What are scam emails trying to achieve?

Quite simply, scam emails are aiming to get hold of personal and financial information which can be used to have access to your money and be able to take this from you. The combination of data like your name, address, date of birth and national insurance number along with with bank sort codes and account numbers will support a scammer to gain access to debit and credit cards or in some instances with the constant development of AI and deep fake generation can be used to open up financial loans which would be placed in your name and would impact your financial and credit score position.

cash of coins and notes

What is the difference between a genuine and fake HMRC email?

We previously mentioned the email address structure being different for emails sent by HMRC but there are also some other things which would distinguish the difference. The tone of genuine HMRC emails would not be forceful and would never be asking for your details (they already have them). They will also always address the email to you personally and never start with “Dear Sir/Madam” or “To Who It May Concern”.

The email would not contain wording or instructions such as “click here to access your online tax account” or have links which are worded such as “view your tax return” or “claim your tax refund”

How else could HMRC contact me?

HMRC will not just communicate with you via email. They will also use the messages section of your online tax account to place notification and new messages to you which can be accessed by logging into your account rather than clicking on links if you are unsure about them. For example, it would be common for a notification in July each year which sends a taxpayer their annual tax summary.

Scam and phishing emails are now an unfortunate common occurrence. When it comes to HMRC, scam emails especially leading up to important financial and tax deadlines such as self-assessment in January can be even higher. We would always suggest you take the time to consider the content, structure and tone of an email and take your time before actioning anything in the email. If you wish to discuss more with someone as Gascoynes then the contact details of our local offices can be found here.

Contact Information Icon

You can listen here to what Thomas had to say in full on BBC Sounds. This link is available up to 4th February 2025. The discussion starts 1hr and 17minutes into the show.