{"id":27210,"date":"2024-09-12T10:42:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T09:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smh.group\/?p=27210"},"modified":"2024-09-12T10:42:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T09:42:55","slug":"fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Unfortunately, scam warnings have become a regular occurrence. The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving letters posted to companies instead of the more usual digital communication.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These fraudulent letters are quite convincing, featuring an official-looking HMRC letterhead and claiming to be from the \u2018Indv and Small Business Compliance\u2019 team.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Targeted companies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The scam focuses on the claim that a targeted company is required to verify their income in order to identify any business not declaring their full income. They then request:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>business bank statements for the past 13 months;<\/li>\n<li>the latest set of filed accounts, including information which \u2013 for smaller companies \u2013 would not be available from Companies House;<\/li>\n<li>VAT returns for the last four quarters; and<\/li>\n<li>for each director, a copy of their passport or driving licence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Scammers can easily use copies of a director\u2019s passport or driving licence to steal their identity for fraudulent purposes, possibly even accessing the company\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n<p>The scam letter uses intimidation tactics, threatening an investigation and a potential freeze on business activity if a response is not received.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Spotting the scam<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>These scam letters use correct technical legislation and avoid obvious spelling and most linguistic mistakes that are usually clear giveaways. Two things to bear in mind when looking out for such frauds:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>HMRC does usually request information from companies by letter or via a business tax account, rather than by email.However, HMRC email addresses end @hmrc.gov.uk, while the email address used in these fraudulent letters is: companies-review@hmrc-taxchecks.org.<\/li>\n<li>A legitimate HMRC letter will include the company\u2019s unique tax reference (UTR).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>HMRC has published a list of their recent letters to help you confirm if a letter is genuine. The list can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/guidance\/check-if-a-letter-youve-received-from-hmrc-is-genuine\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For more information,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/contact\/\">contact us<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<strong>0114 266 4432<\/strong>\u00a0or email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:info@smh.group\"><strong>info@smh.group.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unfortunately, scam warnings have become a regular occurrence. The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving letters posted to companies instead of the more usual digital communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,83,98,77,801],"class_list":["post-27210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smh-accounting-business-advisory","tag-business","tag-chartered-accountants","tag-financial-advice","tag-financial-planning","tag-scam"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SMH Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"648\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brendan Hall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brendan Hall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brendan Hall\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e\"},\"headline\":\"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png\",\"keywords\":[\"business\",\"chartered accountants\",\"financial advice\",\"financial planning\",\"scam\"],\"articleSection\":[\"SMH Accounting &amp; Business Advisory\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\",\"name\":\"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e\"},\"description\":\"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png\",\"width\":864,\"height\":648,\"caption\":\"HMRC Letter\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/\",\"name\":\"SMH Group\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e\",\"name\":\"Brendan Hall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3e3bb96786e02b14d97d1c006fde60e4080a2841fd919bafa62c4cc1c65688?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3e3bb96786e02b14d97d1c006fde60e4080a2841fd919bafa62c4cc1c65688?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brendan Hall\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/author\/brendan-hall\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group","description":"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group","og_description":"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.","og_url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/","og_site_name":"SMH Group","article_published_time":"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":864,"height":648,"url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Brendan Hall","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brendan Hall","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/"},"author":{"name":"Brendan Hall","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e"},"headline":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise","datePublished":"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/"},"wordCount":310,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png","keywords":["business","chartered accountants","financial advice","financial planning","scam"],"articleSection":["SMH Accounting &amp; Business Advisory"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/","url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/","name":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise - SMH Group","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png","datePublished":"2024-09-12T09:42:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e"},"description":"The latest scam highlighted by HMRC is rather \u2018old school\u2019, involving a fake HRMC letter posted to companies.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/SMH-CA-blog-photos-sep-1.png","width":864,"height":648,"caption":"HMRC Letter"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/fake-hmrc-letter-scam-on-the-rise\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Fake HMRC Letter Scam on the Rise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#website","url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/","name":"SMH Group","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/637129b7464f960037f1b676f625570e","name":"Brendan Hall","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3e3bb96786e02b14d97d1c006fde60e4080a2841fd919bafa62c4cc1c65688?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fe3e3bb96786e02b14d97d1c006fde60e4080a2841fd919bafa62c4cc1c65688?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brendan Hall"},"url":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/author\/brendan-hall\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27210"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27229,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27210\/revisions\/27229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devstagesite.co.uk\/smhgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}