WARNING: New SARS scam doing rounds in South Africa

As South Africa approaches closer to the tax returns season, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned taxpayers of a new scam trying to defraud people.

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SARS scam alert

A latest BusinessTech report stated that, according to the tax authority, the latest scam is an email seemingly from a Gauteng.gov.za email address with the subject title ‘Urgent letter from SARS attached for your attention’.

The scam is a PDF with a button to click called ‘View account in arrears’. SARS has warned taxpayers not to click on any suspicious links.

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If you hover your mouse over the link, it is clear that the link is not legit, said the taxman.

Scams attempting to defraud taxpayers have run rampant. SARS has reported a total 332 scams trying to exploit SARS’s name.

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Reporting suspicious scam actions

SARS said taxpayers can report or to get more information on scams, send an email to phishing@sars.gov.za or call the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Hotline on 080 000 2870. To see all current SARS surveys, emails and SMSs, click here.

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Read the following advice as to what to keep an eye out for:

• Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
• Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc.).
• SARS will never request your banking details in any communication that you receive via post, email, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication purposes, it will verify your personal details. Importantly, it will not send you any hyperlinks to other websites – even those of banks.
• Beware of false SMSs.
• SARS does not send *.htm or *.html attachments.
• The taxman will never ask for your credit card details.

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