SARS warns of new scam targeting taxpayers in South Africa

 ·4 Mar 2024

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned of a new email scam targeting taxpayers in South Africa.

The latest scam doing the rounds talks about eFiling Income Tax assessment and tax compliance obligations and links to an apparent “Fiscal Assessment Report”.

The scammers urge recipients to review the report as part of urgent tax obligations and to get in contact for further information.

In the most recent cases, the emails purport to come from various names “@gov.za”, in an attempt to seem like a legitimate source from the national government.

SARS warned taxpayers against opening any links in these emails and said they should be deleted immediately.

The latest scam is yet another example of phishing – where emails impersonate companies or authoritative government bodies.

These are fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, through fake emails, text messages or websites.

In previous scams, emails that appear to be from [email protected] or [email protected], indicate that taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds.

SARS has previously noted that if taxpayers are unsure about the legitimacy of an email purporting to come from the taxman, they should be sent on to [email protected].

With rampant scams on the loose, SARS  has established a webpage to share updates about new scams that exploit its name for fraudulent purposes to help people stay informed and avoid falling victim.

To best protect themselves from such scams, SARS noted that taxpayers should be aware of the following:

  • Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources.
  • Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc.).
  • SARS will never request your banking details in any communication that you receive via post, email, or SMS. However, for the purpose of telephonic engagement and authentication purposes, SARS will verify your personal details. Importantly, SARS will not send you any hyperlinks to other websites – even those of banks.
  • Beware of false SMSs.
  • SARS does not send *.htm or *.html attachments.
  • SARS will never ask for your credit card details.

Read: Kieswetter staying on at SARS for two more years

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