How to tell a real HMRC letter from a scam
Thirty seconds is enough to sort most of them. A genuine HMRC message never threatens arrest, never demands payment by gift card or transfer to a “safe account”, and never offers a refund in exchange for your card details. If the message does any of those things, you are done reading it.
The harder cases are the careful fakes that copy HMRC’s tone properly, so here is the full sorting method, straight from what HMRC itself publishes and what lands in our clients’ inboxes.
The tells, in order of reliability
HMRC’s own scam identification guidance gives a checklist, and it holds up. Be suspicious of any contact that rushes you, threatens you, arrives unexpectedly, asks for personal or bank information, tells you to transfer money, or offers a refund, rebate or grant.
Two of those deserve underlining. Urgency is the scammer’s core tool, because a person given time to think checks things. And the refund lure is the most common shape of all, because who does not want £278.44 back from the taxman? HMRC does issue refunds. It does not ask for your bank details by text to pay them, because it already has a process that does not need them.
On the phone, the line is even brighter. HMRC will not leave a voicemail threatening legal action, and it will not threaten arrest. The aggressive robocall saying a warrant has been issued in your name is a scam every single time.
What makes this confusing
HMRC genuinely does send text messages to some taxpayers, genuinely does email, and genuinely does ring people. So “HMRC never texts” is not a usable rule. The usable rule is about content, not channel. Real messages point you to GOV.UK to sign in through your own account. Fake ones carry links to sites that ask you to enter things. If a message contains a link and a request for details, treat the link as radioactive and go to GOV.UK by typing it yourself.
Letters get faked too, less often but more convincingly. The scam letters we have seen borrow real letterheads and real-sounding reference numbers. The giveaway is nearly always the payment instruction, an account name that is not HMRC, a demand for immediate settlement, a mobile number to call. When in doubt, look up the relevant HMRC department’s number yourself on GOV.UK and ask whether the reference exists. Never use the contact details printed on the thing you are doubting. We wrote more about telling routine letters from serious ones in our guide to HMRC letters.
Where to send the fakes
Forward scam emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk. Forward scam texts to 60599. Both go to HMRC’s security team, and the reporting genuinely feeds takedowns. If you have actually lost money, report it through Action Fraud, or by calling 101 in Scotland, and tell your bank immediately because speed changes what can be recovered.
If you already clicked
Entering details on a fake site is recoverable if you move fast. Contact your bank first, change your Government Gateway password second, and watch your tax account for changes you did not make, because harvested details get used to redirect genuine refunds. Nothing about having been caught changes your actual tax position, and HMRC’s phishing reporting page covers the follow-up steps.
Common questions
Does HMRC ever ring about unpaid tax?
Yes, real debt collection calls exist. The difference is manner and method. A real caller can tell you your reference, does not threaten arrest, and directs any payment through your own HMRC account, never to a bank account read out over the phone.
I got a text about a tax refund. Real?
Assume not. Refunds are claimed through your personal tax account on GOV.UK, signed in through your own credentials, not through a link in a text. If a refund genuinely exists you will find it there.
How do scammers know my name and details?
Data breaches, mostly from companies nothing to do with HMRC. A scam message knowing your name or postcode proves nothing about its authenticity.
Can I check whether a specific contact was real?
Yes. HMRC publishes lists of its genuine recent communications, and you can ring the relevant department through the number on GOV.UK to confirm anything with your reference on it.
One more pattern worth knowing. Scam pressure peaks around real deadlines, late January especially, because that is when a message about tax feels most plausible. The real deadlines are in our deadlines guide, and if a genuine HMRC letter is what started your worry, our free review will tell you what it actually means.
