If you’re a business owner, be careful of a letter claiming to be from ‘Indv and Small Business Compliance’ team at HMRC and asking for confidential company information and bank statements.
It’s likely to be a scam from people pretending to be from HMRC. They ask you to verify financial information by sending a lot of documents, such as profit and loss accounts, VAT returns, and digital copies of passports. They also claim it’s part of a government scheme to combat tax evasion.
The letter has an HMRC logo and looks fairly convincing at a first glance. However, they use the email address companies-review@hmrc-taxchecks.org. Check the email address by hovering over it (don’t click it!) – if it doesn’t end in @hmrc.gov.uk, it’s fake.
And the real HMRC doesn’t ask for information via email, so if you receive one, don’t click on suspicious links or reply. The scammers hope you’ll panic and give them your sensitive information, making you an easy target for identity theft or fraud. So be careful and check the source before giving out any important information.
