HMRC fraud
What’s the scam?
Ahead of the self assessment deadline on 31 January, there’s often an increase in reports of fraudsters targeting people with fake offers of tax refunds or urgent payment demands to try to steal personal and banking information.
What you need to know
HMRC will never contact you via email, text, or phone to offer a refund or request personal details. They’ll also never request your PIN or passwords.
You should never open any links or reply to a text message claiming to be from HMRC that offers you a tax refund in exchange for personal or financial details.
HMRC have published a list of their current messages so that you can check if a communication from them is genuine.
They’ve also released a series of example scam messages so you know what to look out for.
How to report it
Forward suspicious emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk
Forwards any suspicious text messages to 60599
Contact HMRC about suspicious phone calls using their online form
Once you’ve forwarded the suspicious message to HMRC, they recommend you delete it from your device. For more information on HMRC scams and how to report them visit the government website.
Gold bullion fraud
What’s the scam?
There’s been recent reports of impersonation scams, where fraudsters pretend to be someone from a trusted organisation like the police, HMRC, or your bank’s fraud team and claiming that they’re investigating a member of staff at your bank for stealing customers’ cash.
To help with their investigation or to protect your account the fraudster may ask you to withdraw your money and invest in gold bullion before sending a courier to transport the gold to a safe location.
It is promised that the gold or property that has been handed over will be reimbursed but in reality there is no further contact and the gold is never seen again.
What you need to know
The police or any other organisation would never ask you to take part in an investigation like this. We would also never call you to say your money was in danger and to transfer it anywhere to keep it safe, or purchase gold.
How to report it
If you do come across anything that sounds similar to this, you should report it to Action Fraud and also let us know. There’s information on how to do this in the section below.
Fake items on Facebook Marketplace
What’s the scam?
Platforms like Facebook Marketplace have had a growing number of online purchase scam reports.
Online purchase scams are where you pay for an item that doesn’t exist. It can be difficult to spot the difference between a genuine or fake seller and items, as fraudsters rely on the anonymity of the internet and may share some personal information or convincing details about the product to prove to you they’re genuine.
What you need to know
The best advice is to always go and view an item in person before handing over any money, if possible. This way you can check that the item is as described and works as intended.
Often fraudsters tempt you with low prices, or advertise the items as nearly sold out or rare. As the Metropolitan Police advises, you should try and find out what is a fair price for similar items so you can spot if something is being sold suspiciously low. It’s better to pay more to a genuine seller than to lose your money.
How to report it
If you see something that you think is a scam on Facebook Marketplace, you should report the suspected scam to Facebook. Facebook also has a handy guide on how to recognise scams on Facebook Marketplace.
How to report fraud
If you’re looking for more advice on fraud and scams, you can visit the Take Five website. This is a national campaign that offers straight-forward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud. This includes email deception and phone-based scams as well as online fraud – particularly where criminals impersonate trusted organisations.
Below is information on how to report specific cases of fraud and scams:
Fraudulent emails
If you think you’ve come across a fraudulent email scam, you can report it to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) by forwarding it to report@phishing.gov.uk. The NCSC recommends you forward on as many scam emails as you come across.
Suspicious texts
If you’ve received a suspicious text message, you can forward it to 7726. Your provider will then be able to investigate the text message.
Phishing scams
If you’ve been hacked or lost money because of a phishing scam, you must report it to Action Fraud. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you can report this via the Action Fraud website or by calling 0300 123 2040. If you’re in Scotland, you need to report it to Police Scotland by calling 101.
Key advice for keeping your account secure
You can contact the Mettle Customer Support Team via the in-app chat on your Mettle App or call 0800 0987 765 to report a scam.
If there's a transaction you don’t recognise, click ‘Get help with this transaction’ on the payment to be directed to our dedicated Fraud Investigation Team.
If we need to call you
We’ll always message you in the app first to let you know we plan to call you. If you’re not expecting a call from us, don’t give any information and hang up the phone.
The information we may ask for
When we call we’ll go through some security questions with you, however we’ll never ask you to give us your account details, PIN or full card number.
We’ll also never tell you that your money is in danger or ask you to move money to a ‘safe account’. We’ll never ask you to approve or decline a transaction in the Mettle app.
Outside of an in-app chat, we’ll never ask you for:
Your PIN
Your 16-digit card number in full
Your 3-digit security code (on the back of your card)
Your password, email address or details of other bank accounts you hold
Any One Time Passwords (OTPs) or Strong Authentication codes
For a full run down of the key information on keeping your money and your account safe, head to our dedicated fraud advice page on our website.
