HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is alerting taxpayers to a surge of fake ‘phishing’ emails sent out by fraudsters.

The email informs the recipient they are due a tax rebate, and provides a click-through link to a cloned replica of the HMRC website. The recipient is asked to provide their credit or debit card details. Fraudsters then try to take money from the account using the details provided. Victims risk having their bank accounts emptied and their personal details sold on to other organised criminal gangs.

HMRC have confirmed that currently they will only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing by post. They don’t use telephone calls, emails or external companies in these circumstances. There is more security advice on the HMRC website.

If anyone receives an email claiming to be from HMRC, please send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk before deleting it permanently.

Other advice would be not to click on websites, links contained in suspicious emails or open attachments and follow advice from http://www.getsafeonline.co.uk/.

If you have reason to believe that you have been the victim of an email scam, report the matter to your bank/card issuer as soon as possible. If in doubt please check with HMRC at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm.