From Mike Bomford, Exeter 382173, October 2, 2008

Fraudsters are sending emails supposedly from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) offering tax rebates.

Devon County Council's Trading Standards Service and HMRC are warning consumers not to be taken in by the scam.

Emails may contain the HMRC logo and other details, and will often come from genuine looking email addresses, but Devon Trading Standards officers say they are fake, and people may be subjecting their personal details to potential fraudulent activity by responding.

Trading Standards advise that people should not respond to emails asking for personal information unless they are verified first. Anyone suspecting that they have received a fraudulent email should not follow any links within the email, or disclose any details or respond to it.

Peter Greene, Devon Trading Standards' Fair Trading Manager, said

"Do not be conned by scammers. It is estimated that UK consumers lose up to £3.5 billion per year to a variety of scams, which exploit low-cost, mass-marketing techniques to target recipients.

"This is just the latest in a series which includes bogus prize draws and lotteries, premium-rate prize promotions, psychic mailings and miracle health cures, which mislead recipients.

"The golden rule is, if it looks to good to be true, it probably is."

HMRC has said that while they may send emails from time to time, they would not request login, bank or credit card details, and notifications of genuine tax rebates are not sent by email.

HMRC was formed on the 18 April 2005 following the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise departments. Those former departmental names no longer exist, and an email which claims to be from one of them individually is certainly not genuine.

Bob Gaiger from HPRC said:

"People should not be taken in by this scam. They should be aware that although these fraudulent emails may contain the HMRC logo and other details, they are fake.

"Recipients should never respond to an email which asks for personal information.

"While HMRC may send you emails from time to time, we would never do so requesting login, bank and credit cards details.

"We work very closely with the police and other bodies to eradicate these types of phishing emails and people should contact us if they receive them."

HMRC has provided an email address to which bogus emails received by members of the public can be forwarded. Although they are unable to respond to every individual email received, the information can be used to target and warn others of the details being used by the scam operators."

The email address for forwarding scam emails received offering a tax refund or rebate is phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.

Peter Greene from Devon Trading Standards, said:

"There are tell tale signs when a fraudulent or scam email is received, and with some consideration, people can avoid becoming a victim:

"When you log on to a genuine secure site operated by a company or organisation that handles your personal information, you will be directed to a secure site - this is shown by the padlock in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser.

"Fraudulent emails are not normally addressed to an individual personally. Instead they often use a generic form of address e.g. 'Dear valued customer'.

"If the email contains a request for any personal information, you are strongly advised not to provide it. Most companies and organisations that deal with or hold your personal details, will not request them from you by email.

"If you have good cause to suspect that your personal details have been stolen by fraudsters either by email or on the Internet, you should report the incident to your Internet Service Provider, via their abuse hotline, eg. abuse@yahoo.com, abuse@aol.com etc, in addition to the genuine company or organisation you believed you were dealing with.

"For example your bank. If you suspect that you have had money or property stolen via internet fraud you should also report the matter to the Police.

"If you require consumer advice, or believe that you have been targetted by a scam operator, please call Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06."

Further information from Devon County Council Trading Standards Service on scams, the Southwest regional 'Scamwise' campaign and other valuable information and advice for consumers and businesses, can be found via our webpages at www.devon.gov.uk/tradingstandards .