As Income Tax Submissions begin, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned about a new scam that aims to deceive taxpayers. The scam involves criminals sending emails posing as authorities from the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Financial Crimes Unit.
The fraudulent email, 'Internal Communication’, appears to come from a fake Department of International Relations & Cooperation’s (DIRCO) email domain. The scam's main objective is to obtain victims' sensitive and personal information for financial gain.
In the email, recipients are requested to click on a fraudulent link to verify their identity. However, SARS urges taxpayers not to click on links and to delete the email immediately. SARS regularly updates its comprehensive list of over 300 scams attempting to exploit the tax authority's name.
This latest scam is part of the ongoing wave of phishing scams that specifically target vulnerable taxpayers. Victims receive random emails designed to appear as if they were sent from SARS, but they are, in fact, fraudulent.
To protect themselves, taxpayers are urged to follow these precautions:
- Refrain from opening or responding to emails from unknown sources.
- Exercise caution with emails requesting personal, tax, banking, and e-Filing details, such as login credentials, passwords, pins, and credit/debit card information.
- SARS will never ask for banking details in any communication via post, email, or SMS. However, SARS may verify your details for telephonic engagement and authentication purposes. Importantly, SARS will not send hyperlinks to external websites.
- Be aware of false SMSs.
- SARS does not send attachments with *.htm or *.html extensions.
- SARS will never ask for credit card details.
With Income Tax Submissions open until October 23, taxpayers must remain vigilant. SARS encourages individuals to delete suspicious emails and visit their dedicated scams and phishing webpage for examples of the latest scams.
