The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is warning taxpayers and businesses about fraudsters who are sending emails pretending to be employees from Sars.
A Sars statement said the emails have an attachment with a link where the receiver of the email can ‘settle an outstanding balance or debt’.
Sars said that the name and contact details of a Sars employee will appear on the email signature, but if you look closely, the email domain is different.
If you have any doubts, you should always check the Sars scams examples webpage.
Here is an example of the scam
Tax refund scam
The above is just one of many scams Sars is warning the public about.
Last month, Sars warned taxpayers about a tax refund payment scam that was circulating during tax season.
With the tax refund 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. 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.
Here are tips from Sars to avoid falling victim to scams:
1. You need to ensure that the email or SMS is genuine before they click on any link.
2. Do not open or answer emails that are from unknown sources.
3. Beware of communications like emails or SMSes that ask for personal, tax, banking or eFiling details.
4. Keep in mind that Sars will never hyperlink to other websites.
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