Criminals and possibly syndicates are taking advantage of the close of the tax season, and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned taxpayers to be on the look out.
Several members of ITWeb's staff received an e-mail in their inboxes yesterday, claiming to be from SARS and offering the recipient a tax refund. The mail provided a link to a realistic-looking site that asked for personal details, including debit or credit card and PIN numbers.
The revenue service responded quickly to the scam and the site is now down; however, it is unclear how long the scam had been in action. According to SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay, it is not sure how many people have fallen for the scam since it was only picked up late yesterday.
“SARS would like to caution taxpayers against a number of scams currently under way, which seek to defraud taxpayers of money, or to obtain their bank and other personal details,” he adds.
Leave a comment