HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reported that thousands of students have been targeted by hackers, who have tried to obtain their financial details.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The scammers are using a fake email address that can appear legitimate such as \u201cuc.ac.uk\u201d, which may inform people they are owed money, thus encouraging individuals to send across their personal details.<\/p>\n
The emails and texts often include links that redirect students to websites where their data is then stolen.<\/p>\n
Fraudulent emails often replicate the branding of GOV.UK, in an attempt to seem authentic. However, a common sign to be aware of is the recipient\u2019s name and email address is often repeated several times within the body of the email.<\/p>\n
The Financial Secretary of the Treasury, Mel Stride said: \u201cHMRC will never inform you about tax refunds by email, text or voicemail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you receive one of these messages, it is a scam. Do not click on any links in these messages, and forward them to HMRC\u2019s phishing email address.\u201d<\/p>\n
HMRC are encouraging all universities to raise awareness of the scam and have reassured them that they were already taking action to protect students.<\/p>\n
Between April and September 2018, HMRC requested that 7,500 phishing sites be deactivated, a significant increase from the 5,200 similar requests made in the same period in 2017.<\/p>\n
Director of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith said: \u201cDevious fraudsters will try every trick in the book to convince victims to hand over their personal information, often with devastating consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital that students spot the signs of fraudulent emails to avoid falling victim by following HMRC\u2019s advice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reported that thousands of students have been targeted by hackers, who have tried to obtain their financial details.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,7,27,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2752,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}