HMRC announces huge drop in scams and urges people to keep reporting dodgy calls, texts and emails

The latest HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures show that the number of reported scam phone calls made by criminals impersonating the department have fallen by 97 per cent over the last 12 months.

Reports of dodgy phone calls peaked at 79,477 in March 2021 and fell to just 2,491 in December 2021, something which HMRC says is a result of all its efforts to make people more aware of scams and methods cyber criminals use.

The fall in scam call reports to HMRC has also been seen elsewhere with a 92 per cent drop in phishing emails and a 97 per cent decline in fake texts recorded over the last year.

HMRC said these significant results are testament to some of the work of teams across the department in tackling these attempts to defraud people, including dedicated customer protection teams and helplines, tools to report scams and the use of innovative technologies.

It also signals that the public is more aware of cyber criminals and the methods they use to trick people into handing over personal and financial details.

Commenting on the figures, Mike Fell, HMRC’s Head of Cyber Security Operations, said: “We work incredibly hard to protect the public from these criminals who ruin lives by stealing from people.

“It’s great news that fewer people are receiving and reporting these attempted frauds, but it is still important they continue to report suspicious contact to us. We will continue to do everything we can to protect the public from these cynical attempts to impersonate HMRC to steal from people.”

HMRC top tips for spotting a scam

Mike's advice to all HMRC customers is to never let yourself be rushed.

He said: "If someone contacts you saying they are from HMRC, wanting you to urgently transfer money or give personal information, be on your guard - HMRC will never ring up threatening arrest, only criminals do that.

"Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing, so take your time and check HMRC scams advice on the GOV.UK website."

Some HMRC-themed scams originate abroad

HMRC works closely with national and international law enforcement agencies to combat scams, including collaboration with India as a key international partner in tackling the organised crime groups that run these scams.

Work by the Indian authorities last year resulted in multiple arrests and the closure of criminal call centre operations.

In June 2021, 51 people were arrested at two call centres in Delhi, India, that were dedicated to facilitating HMRC scams.

HMRC has a dedicated Customer Protection team working on cyber and phone crime around the clock, closing down scams and sharing intelligence with law enforcement agencies.

HMRC also deploys innovative technologies to prevent misleading and malicious communications that impersonate its genuine email channels, from ever reaching the public.

Since 2017 these technical controls have allowed HMRC to prevent 500 million bogus emails reaching customers.

More recently, new controls have prevented 90 per cent of the most convincing text messages from reaching the public and joint working with industry partners has prevented the spoofing of most of HMRC’s helpline numbers.

In the last year, HMRC has responded to 670,793 referrals of suspicious contact from the public, with 283,157 of these cases offering bogus tax rebates.

Others threaten arrest for tax evasion or offer fake financial support.

As part of HMRC’s action to combat voice scams, the department has set up a direct referral route on GOV.UK where people can report HMRC-related telephone phishing.

To find out more, ore report a scam visit the GOV.UK website here.

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