With the tax return deadline fast approaching, criminals are targeting Self Assessment customers knowing HMRC may genuinely contact customers and try and steal money or personal information from unsuspecting individuals.

In the last 12 months HMRC has:

• responded to 797,010 referrals of suspicious contact from the public - some 357,567 of these offered bogus tax rebates
• worked with the telecoms industry and Ofcom to remove more than 1,282 phone numbers being used to commit HMRC-related phone scams
• received 327,044 reports of phone scams in total, 21% up on the previous year
• reported,561 malicious web pages for takedown

HMRC have given the following guidance:

"Never let yourself be rushed. If someone contacts you saying they’re from HMRC, wanting you to urgently transfer money or give personal information, be on your guard.

HMRC will also never ring up threatening arrest. Only criminals do that.

Scams come in many forms. Some threaten immediate arrest for tax evasion, others offer a tax rebate. Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so if you are in any doubt whether the email, phone call or text is genuine, you can check the ‘HMRC scams’ advice on GOV.UK and find out how to report them to HMRC."

Criminals use all forms of communication to dupe customers:

• Emails
• Phone calls and text messages to try and trick individuals, and often mimic government messages to make them appear authentic.

You can report suspicious phone calls using a form on GOV.UK. Customers can also forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599.