Thousands of university students have been targeted with fake tax refund emails in an attempt to steal their banking and personal details, HM Revenue and Customs has said.

The tax authority has received thousands of fraud reports over the last few weeks in what it said was the first scam directly targeting university students in such high volumes.

The scammers were using seemingly legitimate university email addresses, such as @uc.ac.uk, to avoid detection. In common with other tax scams, scammers sent a message telling the recipient about a tax refund. Often, these messages spoofed the branding of Gov.UK and well-known credit cards in an attempt to look authentic.

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If tricked, the victim clicked on a link and entered their banking and personal details. Fraudsters then used this personal information to steal money from the victim.

Between April and September this year, HMRC asked for 7,500 of these phishing sites to be deactivated. This compares with about 5,200 requests during the same period in 2017.

The financial secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride, said: “HMRC will never inform you about tax refunds by email, text or voicemail. If you receive one of these messages it is a scam. Do not click on any links in these messages, and forward them to HMRC’s phishing email address [phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk].

“Although HMRC is cracking down hard on internet scams, criminals will stop at nothing to steal personal information. I’d encourage all students to become phishing aware – it could save you a lot of money.”

The director of Action Fraud, Pauline Smith, said: “Devious fraudsters will try every trick in the book to convince victims to hand over their personal information, often with devastating consequences. It is vital that students spot the signs of fraudulent emails to avoid falling victim by following HMRC’s advice.

“HMRC is encouraging all universities to raise awareness of scams and many have already begun taking action to warn their students of the risks.”



Though institutions across the country are thought to be affected, the tax authority called on the following particular universities to take action to raise awareness now:

Aberdeen, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Imperial College London, King’s College London, Manchester Metropolitan, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Queen Mary (London), Queen’s (Belfast), Southampton, Sussex, University College London and Warwick.