Students Targeted by Fake Tax Scammer Threat

The scam emails have targeted thousands of students, prompting a response from HM Revenue and Customs.

Trent students have been targeted by a national email scam offering bogus tax refunds.

The scam emails look like official university addresses – such as ‘@uc.ac.uk,’- tricking unsuspecting students into handing over personal details.

HM Revenue and Customs have received thousands of fraud reports over the last few weeks, making it the largest ever scam to affect university students directly.

Trent’s student magazine Platform received one of the con emails last month offering a £500 refund.

To look convincing email had:

An ac.uk email address
The official HMRC logo
Asked users to create a government gateway account to access refunds

Now the government has issued a warning to students.

Mel Stride, financial secretary to the Treasury released a statement. She said: “HMRC will never inform about refunds through email, text or voicemail.”

“It’s worth keeping your wits about you”

Platform Editor-in-Chief Eve Smallman said her team ignored the request which came to a group email address.

“As super broke students, it can be easy to be wooed by an official looking email with a large sum of money on it.

“However it’s worth keeping your wits about you, as if you fall for any scam scheme the likelihood is you will end up out of pocket.”

The scam emails mostly appeared to imitate official sites such as ‘Gov.UK’ and other large credit card companies, where fake links would then ask for bank details.

From April through to September, HMRC requested that nearly 7,500 fraudulent sites be shut down, up nearly 2,500 from 2017.

Gov.UK asks that all suspicious emails be forwarded to the email address: phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.

Pauline Smith, the director of Action Fraud also said: “Devious fraudsters will try every trick in the book to convince victims to hand over their personal information… it is vital that students spot the signs of fraudulent emails to avoid falling victim by following HMRC’s advice.

Though universities across the country have been affected, these institutions have been called to take action:

Aberdeen, Bristol, Cambridge. Durham, Imperial College London, Kings College London, Manchester Metropolitan, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Queen Mary (London), Queens, Belfast, Southampton, Sussex, UCL and Warwick.

By Tiernan Phipps