HMRC returned the refund from my tax account to the fraudster who made a claim for payment | tax
Since January, I have received several letters from HM Revenue And customs says I owe £2,500 plus interest. My accountant and I have written to HMRC show that my tax account is paid in full, but I have not received any response. I have since been hounded by a debt collector.
EF, London
HMRC told me that in January they received a phone call requesting that excess tax be paid into your self-assessment account.
He gladly paid the money as directed by the caller, only to later realize that the call was from a scammer impersonating you and pocketing the money.
This has led to arrears building up in your tax account – hence the £2,500 claim handed over by HMRC.
HMRC went out of its way to say that the fraudster in question used personal information “obtained elsewhere”.
This is an unusual situation for many reasons: the possibility of activating payments over the phone; that HMRC, notorious for its diabolical communications, answered the phone; That the check appears to have been sent to the fraudster and not to your address; After the event, she was able to prove that the call was fraudulent, indicating that there were anomalies and that it was ignored. And he never thought to tell you that you had been scammed.
In June, HMRC announced that criminals had stolen £47 million by accessing the tax accounts of 100,000 individuals in order to make false payment claims.
It was It was criticized by the Treasury Committee For not informing Parliament or the public. I have repeatedly highlighted the ease with which bogus rebates can be made and paid on behalf of unwitting taxpayers.
HMRC have denied that your experience was linked to the £47 million theft. You can use an accounting firm to manage your tax affairs. It emerged that 13 of the company’s other clients are also being pursued after demanding a payment of £2,500 in a similarly fraudulent manner. The company reported your case to HMRC in March but received only a courteous response.
It seems possible that scammers have hacked into the company’s computer system or obtained sensitive data via phishing emails.
I only heard from HMRC after I intervened. You explained that your tax account was showing a balance for five days in January between you making your first payment into the account for the last tax year and closing your account. The scammer jumped into that little window and ran off with £2,500 of that credit, leaving you with a deficit.
In its letter to you, HMRC linked your experience to the wider problem of payment fraud you identified, although they assured me it was unrelated.
A spokesperson told me: “We have contacted EF and his agent to apologise, and to confirm that we have updated his record to show he does not owe that money.”
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