HMRC has warned Self Assessment tax return customers to be alert to scammers.

Fraudsters use calls, emails or texts to contact customers, particularly as the 31 January deadline approaches.

In the last 12 months, HMRC has responded to over 846,000 referrals of suspicious HMRC contact from the public, and reported over 15,500 malicious web pages to internet service providers. Almost 500,000 of the referrals from the public offered bogus tax rebates.

Many scams inform customers of a fake ‘tax rebate’ or ‘tax refund’ they are due. The imposters use language designed to convince them to hand over personal ...