Watch out for VAT phishing email
10 February, 2025
Members should be wary of a phishing email purporting to be the notification of a compliance check into VAT Returns.
The email looks like this:
Members and their clients should be vigilant and not click on the link.
A reminder of some of the things to look out for when considering whether an email is a phishing email or not has been produced by the government’s stopthinkfraud campaign, and include:
- an amazing, time-limited offer or strong encouragement to ‘click here/now’ – encouraging you to respond quickly
- an email that doesn’t use your name – perhaps they don’t really know who you are
- spelling and grammar mistakes (though phishing emails are getting more sophisticated than they used to be)
- imagery or design that looks familiar but doesn’t feel quite right
- an unusual email address – it might look a bit similar but does it really match the official company’s email address?
- encouragement to click on an unknown link – if you’re not sure, visit the organisation’s website directly rather than clicking through
- a request for you to share personal data