Just to flag up to others , earlier tonight I received a text message , allegedly from HMRC , informing me that I was due a tax rebate of a couple of hundred pounds and to click on the link , then complete the form to process the refunds.
The very message was obviously dodgy since this is just not the way tax refunds are processed ( past experience is they come in the form of a cheque through the post ) , and secondly the link just didn't look genuine .
Out of curiosity , I followed the link ( nothing confidential kept on my computer for them to steal ) and it was a good rendition of a HMRC web page , with their logos , fonts etc etc
It went on to ask my name , address , date of birth , driving licence no , bank details , sort code , account no , card no , CCV no , mothers maiden name , etc etc etc
Needless to say I did NOT provide any details .
Instead , I went to the genuine HMRC website , and followed their link to report such things , this took me to a government cyber crime site , where I answered some questions , none of which involved giving any personal details - this was done on a different machine to the one I followed the link on .
The very message was obviously dodgy since this is just not the way tax refunds are processed ( past experience is they come in the form of a cheque through the post ) , and secondly the link just didn't look genuine .
Out of curiosity , I followed the link ( nothing confidential kept on my computer for them to steal ) and it was a good rendition of a HMRC web page , with their logos , fonts etc etc
It went on to ask my name , address , date of birth , driving licence no , bank details , sort code , account no , card no , CCV no , mothers maiden name , etc etc etc
Needless to say I did NOT provide any details .
Instead , I went to the genuine HMRC website , and followed their link to report such things , this took me to a government cyber crime site , where I answered some questions , none of which involved giving any personal details - this was done on a different machine to the one I followed the link on .