Beware of tax scams
JOBURG – South African Institute of Tax Professionals (SAITP) has warned taxpayers to be careful against scams as South African Revenue Services (Sars) reported that on the first day of the 2015 Tax Season more than 29 400 tax returns were filed via eFiling.
In the same breath, the South African Institute of Tax Professionals (SAITP) has warned taxpayers to be cautious of tax scams.
Also read Changes as tax season begins
SAITP team leader – Sars operations, Lesedi Seforo said, “Taxpayers need to be careful and heed against scams and phishing attacks. It’s open season for criminals during tax season.”
Seforo added that scams and phishing attacks have unfortunately become more and more common in today’s electronic world. He appealed to taxpayers to take note of the following rules to mitigate being defrauded:
- Do not open or respond to e-mails from unknown sources
- Beware of e-mails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information etc), as Sars will never ask taxpayers for such information in an e-mail.
- Sars will not request your banking details via the phone, e-mail or websites
- Beware of false text messages.
Examples of scams include e-mails that appear to be from returns@sars.co.za or refunds@sars.co.za indicating that taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds. These e-mails contain links to false forms and false websites made to look like the real thing, but with the aim of fooling people into entering personal information such as bank account details which the criminals then extract and use fraudulently. Other examples of scams can be found on the Sars website.
Seforo recommended that taxpayers report phishing to phishing@sars.gov.za or to call the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Hotline on 0800 00 2870.
