fraud scams
9 February 2009
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) would like to caution taxpayers
against a number of scams currently underway which seek to defraud taxpayers of
money or to obtain their bank and other personal details.
Two scams have been brought to the attention of SARS in recent days. The
first involves e-mails being sent to unsuspecting taxpayers informing them that
they are owed an income tax refund and requesting them to complete a refund
form in order to get the fictitious refund. This ârefund formâ which copies the
SARS eFiling logo and website style requires taxpayers to provide their debit
or credit card number and pin numbers. The second scam is aimed at Value Added
Tax (VAT) vendors and also uses a copied SARS eFiling letterhead. It requests
that VAT vendors make all VAT payments into a fraudulent bank account.
Both scams have been referred to the South African Police Service and SARSâs
criminal investigation divisions for further investigation.
SARS would like to remind taxpayers that they should never divulge personal
details and banking details to anyone over the telephone, e-mail, fax or
internet without establishing the true identity of the recipient.
SARS eFilers are only notified via e-mail or SMS that their income tax
assessment has been processed. To access their IT34, the eFiler is required to
log in to their unique profile on eFiling using their username and password.
The IT34 will then reflect whether the taxpayer is due or a refund or
additional tax on assessment.
If a refund is due to the taxpayer SARS automatically pays the refund into
the taxpayerâs bank account; provided that the details are correct. If banking
details are not correct the taxpayer must visit a SARS branch office with
supporting documents to correct the bank account details.
To prevent fraud, SARS last year did away with issuing of refund cheques and
will only pay refunds into verified bank accounts. In this regard SARS has
contacted approximately 150 000 taxpayers whose bank account details were not
provided on their income tax return or who bank account details could not be
verified to request that they correct these to receive refunds due. To prevent
fraud or âphishingâ, these taxpayers are required to correct their details in
person at a SARS branch.
The SARS anti-corruption an fraud hotline is 0800 002 870
Issued by: South African Revenue Service
9 February 2009
Source: South African Revenue Service (http://www.sars.gov.za/)
