Jump to content

Recommended Posts

A new version of an old tax scam has appeared. Emails from [email protected]? have an attached PDF file which you are asked to open to obtain details on your tax refund. This attachment contains a Trojan virus which will infect your computer and enable the spammers to see your online activity. DO NOT OPEN this attachment, there is no tax refund!


HMRC will never send tax refund notifications or ask you to disclose any personal or banking information online. You can forward the scam message to [email protected]? so that they are aware of the latest messages.

General tip - NEVER open an attachment or click on a link unless you are expecting it. Few places send them these days.


Current scams include parcel notifications, tax notifications, Paypal notifications, bank notifications, etc, etc. A good indictor is anything addressed to you by email name (Dear [email protected]...) is a scam. Check that the email address is forged - on hotmail/outlook you'll see the sender is something like "[email protected] ([email protected])"


Also, if you get an email saying 'your account is frozen - click here and give us all your details", then be alert. If you hover over (not click) the link you'll see in the browser status bar at the bottom of the window the ACTUAL url you will be sent to (something like "http://www.sitename.ru/bankscampage.html").

  • 2 years later...
On the subject of tax refunds I wrote on behalf of my son for a refund for 2015/16. The reply I got was they had no record of him having paid any tax. When he came home for a month he provided me with payslips which were on his computer. I wrote again and lo and behold a cheque arrived a few weeks later. Not lots of money but for a student abroad most welcome for him and me.

Also, its worth knowing that this scam can come via text message. Troublingly, on my iPhone I got a message a few days ago that managed to hijack the existing AUTHENTIC message thread of HMRC access codes for online submission - so looked convincing. Usual fraudulent link to click.


Perhaps it is just that time of year, but I got this a few days after submitting my tax return - as with bank fraud so often aided or committed by insiders, one rather wonders if there is someone selling info.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Honestly, the squirrels are not a problem now.  They only eat what has dropped.  The feeders I have are squirrel proof anyway from pre-cage times.  I have never seen rats in the garden, and even when I didn't have the cage.  I most certainly would have noticed them.  I do have a little family of mice which I have zero problem about.  If they stay outside, that's fine with me.  Plus, local cats keep that population down.  There are rats everywhere in London, there is plenty of food rubbish out in the street to keep them happy.  So, I guess you could fit extra bars to the cage if you wanted to, but then you run the risk of the birds not getting in.  They like to be able to fly in and out easily, which they do.   
    • Ahh, the old "it's only three days" chestnut.  I do hope you realise the big metal walls, stages, tents, toilets, lighting, sound equipment, refreshments, concessions etc don't just magically appear & disappear overnight? You know it all has to be transported in & erected, constructed? And that when stuff is constructed, like on a construction site, it's quite noisy & distracting? Banging, crashing, shouting, heavy plant moving around - beep beep beep reversing signals, engines revving - pneumatic tools? For 8 to 10 hours a day, every day? And that it tends to go on for two or three weeks before an event, and a week after when they take it all down again? I'm sure my boys' GCSE prep won't be affected by any of that, especially if we close the windows (before someone suggests that as a resolution). I'm sure it won't affect anyone at the Harris schools either, actually taking their exams with that background noise.
    • Thanks for the good discussion, this should be re-titled as a general thread about feeding the birds. @Penguin not really sure why you posted, most are aware that virtually all land in this country is managed, and has been for 100s of years, but there are many organisations, local and national government, that manage large areas of land that create appropriate habitats for British nature, including rewilding and reintroductions.  We can all do our bit even if this is not cutting your lawn, and certainly by not concreting over it.  (or plastic grass, urgh).   I have simply been stating that garden birds are semi domesticated, as perhaps the deer herds in Richmond Park, New Forest ponies, and even some foxes where we feed them.  Whoever it was who tried to get a cheap jibe in about Southwark and the Gala festival.  Why?  There is a whole thread on Gala for you to moan on.  Lots going on in Southwark https://www.southwark.gov.uk/culture-and-sport/parks-and-open-spaces/ecology-and-wildlife I've talked about green sqwaky things before, if it was legal I'd happily use an air riffle, and I don't eat meat.  And grey squirrels too where I am encourage to dispatch them. Once a small group of starlings also got into the garden I constructed my own cage using starling proof netting, it worked for a year although I had to make a gap for the great spotted woodpecker to get in.  The squirrels got at it in the summer but sqwaky things still haven't come back, starlings recently returned.  I have a large batch of rubbish suet pellets so will let them eat them before reordering and replacing the netting. Didn't find an appropriately sized cage, the gaps in the mesh have to be large enough for finches etc, and the commercial ones were £££ The issue with bird feeders isn't just dirty ones, and I try to keep mine clean, but that sick birds congregate in close proximity with healthy birds.  The cataclysmic obliteration of the greenfinch population was mainly due to dirty feeders and birds feeding close to each other.  
    • Another recommendation for Niko - fitted me in the next day, simple fix rather than trying to upsell and a nice guy as well. Will use again
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...