HMRC has issued a warning to taxpayers to be careful when making a Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grant claim as there are a number of scams circulating, with fraudsters using emails and text messages to try dupe the self-employed into making spurious claims.
It is important not to click on any links before checking the message is from who is says it is from (verifying the sender). Any phishing (scam) emails or texts should be sent to HMRC:
- a text message (forward it to 60599 – you’ll be charged at your network rate)
- an email (forward it to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk)
- a message in an application, for example WhatsApp – take a screenshot and forward as an email
- phone calls asking for personal information or threatening a lawsuit (report a phone call)
For more information visit: https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing/report-hmrc-phishing-emails-texts-and-phone-call-scams