The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned South African citizens about a hoax email doing the rounds which attempts to steal money from victims under pretences of online tax collection.
“There is a steady increase in email scams and phishing attacks in which the SARS brand is being abused,” the statement on the SARS website claims.
This follows “fraudulent emails aimed at enticing unsuspecting taxpayers to part with personal information such as bank account details” from misleading email addresses.
Generally sent from addresses [email protected] or [email protected], emails offer a tax refund with links to forged websites which request personal information, including banking details.
Betrayed respondents have reported fraud after submitting banking details. Recipients are advised to not open any suspicious mail or mock messages from the mentioned email addresses.
A warning against pretentious SMSs is also issued.
SARS assured all taxpayers that they will not request personal, banking, tax or eFiling information via phone, email or websites.
The official website supplies a list of more than 165 examples of phishing and scam attempt emails.
‘Your payment from SARS’ is the subject title of the latest phishing attack that enters mailers’ inboxes, as posted on Tuesday, January 22.
