Emails From Gov.uk Regarding Refund.

[MrsLadyBug]

Are they legit ?
Has anyone else had them ?

[emeritus]

Do you mean HMRC ?

Official line from them is

HMRC never contacts customers who are due a tax refund via email - we always send a letter through the post. "If you receive an email claiming to be from HMRC which offers a tax rebate, please send it to [email protected] and then delete it permanently.

[Buenchico]

>>> Are they legit ?

Almost certainly not. It's easy to spoof the address shown in an email. (You need to go into the detailed headers to find out where it's really from). So the fact that an email appears to come from a 'gov.uk' address is meaningless.

Any genuine communication is still likely to arrive by post. Alternatively you might get an email asking you to log into your HMRC account (for example) in order to read a message there. (Any such email will address you by your full name. e.g. "Dear Henrietta Worthington", rather than as, say, '"Dear Customer").


>>> Has anyone else had them ?

Probably about half the adult population of the UK! Such emails are extremely common.

If you want a more definite answer, please let us know which government department the email purports to ome from, whether you're addressed by name and exactly what it says. (In the meantime, do NOT click on any link in the email!!!)

[MrsLadyBug]

Thanks for that.
It is supposed to be from HMRC and gives a link which looks very official. But no its not addressed to Me as such just to my email.
It gives a phone no but I am living in Ireland so dont know if the no is afe either.
But it is probably safer to just ignore it.
I have heard many scary stories about bogus emails but this is first for me.

Thanks for the good advice.

[goodgoalie]

Whatever you do, do NOT click on the link on that or any other email you are unsure of, no matter how official it looks!

[Cloverjo]

We get lots of these emails, usually telling us that we are owed £xxx as a VAT refund and we need to click on a link.

In fact, we tell the HMRC what we owe or claim so these emails are clearly spoofs and we delete them.

[Jahulaye]

Mrs ladybug, I got one earlier asking about a tax refund=SCAM!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/money/2009/sep/09/hmrc-scam-email

[Jahulaye]

The funny reply for that link

“The giveaway is that the HMRC is actively trying to give you your money back. Hell, I chased them for it and it still took over a year...”

[MrsLadyBug]

Thanks everyone. I thought it looked a little too good to be true.
Will be careful.
Although I can see how they target UK residents but I live in Ireland and although English by birth haven't worked in UK for many years.
So why was I on their list is puzzling me.

[Buenchico]

>>> So why was I on their list is puzzling me

Have you, perchance, got an email address ending in .co.uk? That might account for it.

[Buenchico]

^^^ Alternatively, if you've ever bought anything online from a UK-based business (and that business has had their servers hacked), it could also account for the assumption that you're in the UK.

[MrsLadyBug]

I suppose that its because I have purchased from UK companies in the past. I don't have any other link to UK.