South African taxpayers are more than a month into the tax season, and many are receiving notifications about their tax refunds.
However, this also presents an opportunity for fraudsters to target unsuspecting individuals. The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has issued an alert about a tax refund payment scam circulating during this period.
According to Sars, in this latest scam, fraudsters are sending an email to people that indicates they are eligible for a tax refund.
The subject line of the email will be: delayed payment due to Sars FICA documents. In the email will be the following statement: Your Sars profile requires an urgent FICA update.
The scam email will ask people to complete their refund by submitting Sars FICA documents. It will further prompt to click on a link linked to a fraudulent website.
The email also warns people that if they don’t send the documents within 21 days, there will be an administrative penalty.
Sars said that in order for people to protect themselves from fraudsters, they need to ensure that the email or SMS is genuine before they click on any link.
Here are other tips from Sars to avoid falling victim to fraudsters:
1. Do not open or answer emails that are from unknown sources.
2. Beware of communications like emails or SMSes that ask for personal, tax, banking or eFiling details.
3. Keep in mind that Sars will never hyperlink to other websites.
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