With all of the announcements coming out regarding business grants, schemes, and loans, sadly, whilst the government is doing so much good, this is a time to be incredibly stringent about scam calls.Several business owners and self-employed individuals are already beginning to get scam calls from people claiming to be from the HMRC requesting bank details for the grant to be given to them. If you receive a phone call like this, do not give them your details. The HMRC will only be notifying people through their GOV.uk website through your account, they will not call and ask for your bank details over the phone or via email.
Here are some tips from the HMRC regarding phishing scams:
- Check the email provider that the email is from. You will always know if the email you have received is a scam if the URL that the sender is sending from does not relate to the business they claim to be.
- Do not reply to SMS messages claiming to offer you coronavirus payments. One example is an SMS that is already known to be sent to individuals - ‘As Part of the NHS promise to battle the COV- 19virus, HMRC has issued a payment of £258 as a goodwill payment. Follow link to apply.’ - do not reply to this message or messages similar to them.
- Do not call any numbers mentioned in SMS messages regarding fines for leaving the house more than once. This is another known scam to be going around via text message stating that they apparently will fine you for leaving the house, this is a scam text and simply note the number as a scam and then delete it.
- HMRC will never send notifications by email about tax rebates or refunds. Do not click any of the URLs in the message to avoid any issues with scamming for your details.
We know that local authorities have already been given the budget to instantly pay business owners who qualify for the grant in relation to Business Loans. If you have any suspicions at all, we recommend you take precautions and do not reply or click any URLs, and directly login to your account on GOV.uk or contact your accountant.
