Since January, I’ve received numerous letters from HM Revenue and Customs stating that I owe £2,500 plus interest. My accountant and I have written to HMRC explaining that my tax account is fully paid up, but have received no reply. I’ve since been chased by a debt collector.
EF, London
HMRC told me that back in January, it had received a phone call requesting a payment of overpaid tax in your self-assessment account.
It blithely paid the money as directed by the caller, then later realised that the call was from a fraudster who had impersonated you and pocketed the money.
That resulted in your tax account falling into arrears – hence the demands for the £2,500 that HMRC had handed over.
HMRC was at pains to say that the said fraudster had used personal information “obtained elsewhere”.
This is an extraordinary state of affairs for so many reasons: that repayments can be activated over the phone; that HMRC, notorious for its diabolical communications, even answered the phone; that the cheque appears to have been sent to the scammer rather than to your address; and that it was able to establish after the event that the call was fraudulent, which suggests anomalies were present and missed. And it never thought to inform you that you had been scammed.
In June, HMRC announced that criminals had stolen £47m by accessing the tax accounts of 100,000 individuals in order to make bogus repayment claims.
It was rebuked by the Treasury committee for not informing parliament or the public. I have repeatedly highlighted the ease with which bogus rebates can be made and paid on behalf of unwitting taxpayers.
HMRC denied your experience was related to the £47m heist. You use an accountancy firm to manage your tax affairs. It turns out 13 of the firm’s other clients are also being pursued after £2,500 repayments were similarly fraudulently claimed. The firm informed HMRC of your case in March but only received a bland holding reply.
It seems possible that scammers hacked into the company’s computer system or gained sensitive data via phishing emails.
You only heard from HMRC after I intervened. It explained that your tax account was showing a credit for five days in January between you making your first payment on account for the last tax year and your account being finalised. Into that tiny window leapt the scammer and made off with £2,500 of that credit, which left you with a shortfall.
In its letter to you, HMRC linked your experience to the wider issue of repayment fraud that it had identified, despite having assured me it was unrelated.
A spokesperson told me: “We’ve contacted EF and his agent to apologise, and confirm we’ve updated his record to show he doesn’t owe this money.”
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions.
