HMRC has warned of a new email phishing scam. Phishing emails are used by fraudsters to access recipients’ valuable personal details, such as usernames and passwords. Whilst these messages may appear to be genuine they are very dangerous and clicking on a link from within the email can result in personal information being compromised and the possibility of computer viruses affecting your computer or smartphone.

There are many examples of these type of emails included in a document recently published by HMRC. The latest email dated 13 January 2015 reads as follows:

Attention: Owner / Manager

We would like to inform you that you have made mistakes while completing the last tax form application (ID: 082883710734).

Please follow the advice of our tax specialists HERE (link).

Please amend the mistakes and send the corrected tax return to your tax agent as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely

Any of our readers who are unsure as to the authenticity of any email or other communication purporting to be from HMRC should be careful to check the validity of any such message. HMRC has clearly stated that it does not send notifications of a tax rebate by email, or asks recipients to disclose personal or payment information by email.