{"id":366726,"date":"2020-01-16T10:01:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T08:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=366726"},"modified":"2020-01-16T10:01:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T08:01:11","slug":"how-to-check-if-a-sars-email-or-sms-is-a-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/366726\/how-to-check-if-a-sars-email-or-sms-is-a-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"How to check if a SARS email or SMS is a scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is warning taxpayers about a number of new scams, spoofing communication that appears to be from the revenue collector.<\/p>\n<p>The latest scam has seen members of the public randomly contacted with false emails made to look like they were sent from SARS.<\/p>\n<p>However, the revenue service warned that these are in fact fraudulent emails aimed at enticing unsuspecting taxpayers to part with personal information such as bank account details.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Examples include emails that appear to be from<strong> returns@sars.co.za<\/strong> or<strong> refunds@sars.co.za<\/strong> indicating that taxpayers are eligible to receive tax refunds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These emails contain links to false forms and fake websites made to look like the real thing, but with the aim of fooling people into entering personal information such as bank account details which the criminals then extract and use fraudulently.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When receiving these fraudulent emails, SARS said that taxpayers should take note of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do not open or respond to emails from unknown sources;<\/li>\n<li>Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit\/debit card information);<\/li>\n<li>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 &#8211; even those of banks;<\/li>\n<li>Beware of false SMSes;<\/li>\n<li>SARS does not send .htm or .html attachments;<\/li>\n<li>SARS will never ask for your credit card details.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below SARS provided examples of the latest scams targeting taxpayers:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dfwp-column dfwp-list\">\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-252%20-%20SMS%20letter%20of%20demand%20-%2015%20January%202020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SMS letter of demand &#8211; 15 January 2020<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-251%20-%20Notice%20of%20tax%20payment%20for%20transfer%20of%20funds%20-%2013%20December%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Notice of tax payment for transfer of funds &#8211; 13 December 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-250%20-%20Returns%20approved%20-%2029%20November%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Returns approved &#8211; 29 November 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-249%20-%20Email%20Income%20Tax%20Return%20Confirmation%20-%2021%20November%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Email Income Tax Return Confirmation &#8211; 21 November 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-248%20-%20SA%20Post%20Office%20parcel%20delivery%20scam%20-%2013%20November%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SA Post Office parcel delivery scam &#8211; 13 November 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-247%20-%20Urgent%20letter%20of%20demand%20-%207%20November%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Urgent letter of demand &#8211; 7 November 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-246%20-%20Outstanding%20tax%20payment%20-%2015%20October%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Outstanding tax payment &#8211; 15 October 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-245%20-%20How%20to%20release%20payment%20-%2015%20October%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to release payment &#8211; 15 October 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-244%20-%20Double%20taxation%20agreements%20-%202%20October%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Double taxation agreements &#8211; 3 October 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-243%20-%20SMS%20Letter%20of%20Demand%20-%203%20October%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SMS Letter of Demand &#8211; 3 October 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-242%20-%20Proof%20of%20payment%20-%2030%20September%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Proof of payment &#8211; 30 September 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-241%20-%20Correspondence%20for%20your%20attention%20-%2020%20September%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Correspondence for your attention &#8211; 20 September 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-240%20-%20Letter%20of%20guarantee%20-%2012%20September%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Letter of guarantee &#8211; 12 September 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-239%20-%20SARS%20eFiling%20notification%20-%2024%20July%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SARS eFiling notification &#8211; 24 July 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"dfwp-item\">\n<div class=\"item link-item bullet\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sars.gov.za\/AllDocs\/SARSEntDoclib\/Scams\/SARS-SCAM-238%20-%20Payment%20%20stop%20order%20-%2023%20July%202019.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Payment stop order &#8211; 23 July 2019<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/366560\/the-rand-taxes-and-other-stupidities-south-africans-should-look-out-for-in-2020-dawie-roodt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The rand, taxes and \u2018other stupidities\u2019 South Africans should look out for in 2020: Dawie Roodt<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Revenue Service (SARS) is warning taxpayers about a number of new scams which claim to be from the revenue collector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":80497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[26,3246],"class_list":["post-366726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-headline","tag-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366726"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366744,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366726\/revisions\/366744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}