Over the last few weeks, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has seen fresh email scams targeting several UK universities, including Sussex.

In these scams, students have received emails at their official university email addresses offering bogus tax refunds. Some of the emails say that the government has ‘issued a refund’ and ask recipients to click on a link to enter their details on a website.

HMRC does not tell taxpayers about tax refunds by asking them to click on a link.

Please follow these steps when you receive an email like this

Stop

• Take a moment to think before parting with your information or money
• Genuine organisations like banks and HMRC will never contact you out of the blue to ask for your PIN, password or bank details, or to withdraw money or transfer it to a different account
• Don’t give out private information, reply to text messages, download attachments or click on links in texts or emails you weren’t expecting

Challenge

• Could it be fake? It’s ok to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you
• Check GOV.UK for information on how to recognise genuine HMRC contact and how to avoid and report scams
• If you think you have received an HMRC-related phishing or bogus email or text message, you can check it against examples published on GOV.UK

Protect

• Use the latest software, apps and operating systems on your phone, tablet or laptop. Update these regularly or set your devices to automatically update so you don’t have to worry
• Forward suspicious emails claiming to be from HMRC to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk and texts to 60599
• Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen victim to a scam, and report it to Action Fraud