24 August 20006
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wants to issue an urgent warning to
all taxpayers about a scam that solicits money from taxpayers and that has
surfaced over the past few weeks.
The procedures by the suspected fraudsters are similar in nature to the
modus operandi which the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC)
described in a cautionary note to clients earlier this month.
The most common approach of the scam is that a fraudulent letter would be
faxed to a taxpayer mostly a registered business that informs the taxpayer that
a refund was mistakenly paid into the taxpayerâs bank account. In some
instances taxpayers are contacted telephonically or receive letters through the
post.
The letter instructs the taxpayer to deduct bank charges and pay the balance
into a bank account which supposedly belongs to SARS. A lot of pressure is put
on the taxpayer to make the deposit. The amounts range anything from R500 000
to R1 million.
SARS wants to caution taxpayers not to pay any money into such accounts
after receiving letters. It is not part of SARSâ procedure to issue letters of
this nature that claim that a refund was mistakenly been issued to a
taxpayer.
It must be emphasised that, in the unlikely event that a refund is
mistakenly issued by SARS, SARS has the procedures in place to withdraw the
money without involving taxpayers or demanding from them to transfer money.
Some guidelines to people who receive such letters are:
* Taxpayers must check their accounts to see if the funds allegedly paid
into their accounts originated from a cheque deposit
* In many instances the money would be reflected, however the account holder
must verify with their bank the source of the deposit and whether or not the
account number into which the deposit is asked to be made is a SARS
account
* The money through a cheque deposit may reflect in the bank account but the
cheque in most cases is a fraudulent cheque
* Communication by the suspected fraudsters normally contains only cellphone
numbers as contact details that the taxpayer can use
* All authentic SARS correspondence has landline numbers.
If a taxpayer received such letter or any form of other correspondence to
this effect, they must report the matter to a special, dedicated anti-fraud
telephone line: 0860 105 684. This number will be operational from midday
tomorrow, Friday, 25 August 2006.
For further media enquiries only please contact:
Adrian Lackay
SARS Communications
Tel: (012) 422 4206
Cell: 083 388 2580
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
24 August 2006
