Beware: New SARS scam directs taxpayers to fraudulent websites
SARS is warning taxpayers about a new scam where legitimate SARS employees are impersonated and victims directed to fraudulent websites.
Taxpayers are warned about a new scam where legitimate South African Revenue Service (SARS) employees are impersonated and victims are directed to fraudulent websites to settle their debt.
SARS has issued a warning about a new scam circulating, and highlighting that these scams primarily target businesses, though individual taxpayers may also fall victim.
The scam emails typically include an attachment with a link, instructing recipients to “settle an outstanding balance or debt.” While the email appears to come from a real SARS employee, closer inspection reveals that the email domain is not authentic.
SARS has previously noted that if taxpayers are unsure about the legitimacy of an email purporting to come from the taxman, they should be sent on to phishing@sars.gov.za.
To best protect themselves from such scams, SARS noted that taxpayers should be aware of the following:
- Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
- Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc.).
- SARS will never request your banking details in any communication you receive via post, email, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication, SARS will verify your personal details. Importantly, SARS will not send you hyperlinks to other websites—even those of banks.
- Beware of false SMSes.
- SARS does not send *.htm or *.html attachments.
- SARS will never ask for your credit card details.
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The latest scams join these others:
- Threats of SARS issuing court summonses against taxpayers
- Threats of SARS blacklisting taxpayers
- Threats of SARS issuing stop orders on accounts
- Notice of correspondence relating to solar
- Notice of outstanding amounts owed to taxpayers
- Notice of outstanding amounts owed to SARS
- Notice of delayed payments pending FICA review
- Legitimate SARS employee impersonation
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