SA taxman victim of fraudulent e-mails

The South African Revenue Services (SARS) has warned the country’s taxpayers to be wary of fraudulent email messages in connection with its electronic filing initiative.

The fraudulent e-mails falsely indicate that taxpayers are eligible to receive a tax refund of varying amounts.

The recipients are provided with a link to an online form, to be filled out in order to claim the return. Personal information is then gained by the fraudsters.

In a statement, SARS said: “A large number of South Africans were randomly emailed a ‘spoofed’ email from a forged email address, return@sars.co.za,”

“This is a typical phishing scam which is usually carried out by e-mail and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by hiding as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”

SARS has completely distanced itself from these messages.