I may be 100% wrong, but I have a "gut feeling" that this email that I have just received (see below) is in fact a scam;)
HM Revenue & Customs
Crownhill Court
Tailyour Road
Plymouth
PL6 5BZ
http://www.hmrc.co.uk/
Dear Applicant,
We are pleased to notify you of the result of the HM Revenue & Customs program held on the 15TH June 2009.You have therefore been approved for a sum payment of 168,240.00 GBP only, payable in Lloyds TSB cashiers check credited to security credited file numbers GWK/558B/5355/UAD in the United Kingdom.
Due to the security, we ask that you keep all information confidential until your claim will be processed and your money remitted to you.
THIS IS PART OF OUR SECURITY PROTOCOLS TO AVOID UNWARRANTED ABUSE OF THIS PROGRAM BY SOME UNKNOWN PARTICIPANTS.
Complete and print the form attached and send to info@lloydstsbprize.com and allow us 3-9 business days in order to process it.
Lloyds TSB BANKUnited KingdomAccount ManagerMs. Kelly Campbellinfo@lloydstsbprize.com0945 100 9005 Your tax file number (TFN): 8 2 1 0 8 4 4 7 9
This will enable the office to verify your claim.
Regards,
HM Revenue & Customs
Crownhill Court
Tailyour Road
Plymouth
PL6 5BZ
http://www.hmrc.co.uk/
Tax does have to be taxing.
Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
I think you're 100% right. HMRC would never send such a letter and their website address looks wrong. Besides, they send cheques don't they? (sorry, they used to)
ReplyDeleteScam. the letter refers to Lloyds TSB Bank. There has never been a Lloyds TSB Bank, there was a Lloyds TSB which is in the process of turning into Lloyds Banking Group.
ReplyDeleteThe domain lloydstsbprize is actually registered in California. Cheque is spelled check, not really the correct spelling in the UK.
ReplyDeleteIts a scam, but could have done with the £168k though. HMRC giving prize money away - doesn't that go against everything the governement and HMRC stand for - soemthing for nothing, I think not.
Its a scam!
9 digit tax reeference number: most incorrect. UTR nos are 10 digit. PAYE reference numbers are 6 digit. CT reference numbers are 10 digit.
ReplyDeleteIt couldn't possibly be from HMRC - the grammar and spelling is far too good. Maybe that will change v when we have been on our mandatory "Language and Tone" courses?
ReplyDeleteAnd to complete the Cross Tax awareness for Mr Casagranda, VAT registration numbers are 9 digits in the format xxx xxxx xx.
hmrc.gov.uk not as they have put hmrc.co.uk
ReplyDeleteHahahahaaahaha.
ReplyDeleteI think some of guys may have missed the tone of irony in Ken's post. I'm surprised none of you came up with the obvious joke about HMRC processing something in 3-9 days, though!
Oh, and to be anal, the main trading company of Lloyds TSB was Lloyds TSB Bank plc, and in fact if you see a Lloyds TSB branch on the high street today it's still actually owned by that company; it's just that the company is now owned by Lloyds Banking Group plc, which also owns HBOS. Our (presumably) Nigerian friends weren't too far wrong on that one, at least!
Oh dear, my "tone of irony" was clearly too low;)
ReplyDeleteBTW, the website they give (which is indeed fake) does actually take you to a copy of HMRC's site.
I assume HMRC will track the owner of that domain name down and shut the site down.
"I assume HMRC will track the owner of that domain name down and shut the site down."
ReplyDeletelol!, nice one. The ability for the HMRC to do something so obviously sensible is laughable at best.
"I assume HMRC will track the owner of that domain name down and shut the site down."
ReplyDeleteHave you notified them? Maybe you should.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/fraud-attempts.htm
Err...I'd imagine www.hmrc.co.uk is probably owned by ... HMRC! As, presumably, is www.hmrc.com, which also bounces you back to the proper HMRC website. It's common practice for companies and other organisations to own lots of variations on their actual web address so people who don't quite get it right end up at the right place anyway. Some companies even register domain names with common misspellings of their own name. I can't quite bring myself to spend the time checking, but I'd be willing to bet that Lloyds Banking Group does this, due to the confusion that, as we see in the spam, surrounds their name!
ReplyDeleteIf you read the spam carefully (actually, not that carefully at all, really), the scam works by enticing you to email them, not by going to the website.
It is a double taxation agreement with HMRC's Lagos office. Project Hummingbird may have come back to bite HMRC on the bum. Ha Ha
ReplyDeleteScam indeed!
ReplyDeleteAdvice from 'proper' hrmc people is to report it to them on the 'proper' website contact- "to make them aware".
This has been going for months now and you'd have thought something would have been done to stop this as they said they were aware of this scam when I spoke to them.
Couldn't understand why, if they were aware of this already that you needed to email them to make them aware of it????
Oh silly me, I thought we were talking about people who actually cared! lol
168,240.00???? I'll take it! Where do I sign??!
ReplyDelete