Following a recent spate of SARS refund scams the South African Revenue Service has issued a warning to taxpayers about an increase in scams which use its name or logo.
There is a steady increase in email scams and phishing attacks in which the SARS brand is being abused, according to a statement from SARS.
Following a recent spate of SARS refund scams the South African Revenue Service has issued a warning to taxpayers about an increase in scams which use its name or logo.
There is a steady increase in email scams and phishing attacks in which the SARS brand is being abused, according to a statement from SARS.
Members of the public are randomly emailed with emails made to look as if they were sent from SARS, but are in fact fraudulent emails aimed at enticing taxpayers to part with personal information such as their bank account details.
Examples include emails that appear to be from returns@sars.co.za, or refunds@sars.co.za indicating that taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds.
"These emails contain links to false forms and false websites made to look like the real thing, but with the objective of fooling people into entering personal information such as bank account details which the criminals then extract and use fraudulently," the statement reads.
SARS advises the following:
* Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
* Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit / debit card information, etc) as SARS will never ask taxpayers for such information in an email.
* SARS will not request your banking details over the phone, or via email or websites.
Taxpayers who are concerned about emails or sms messages claiming to be from SARS should email phishing@sars.gov.za, call the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Hotline at 0800 00 2870, or call the SARS Contact Centre at 0800 00 7277.
