SARS<\/a>, highlighting new scams and tactics used by criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe most recent scam flagged by the taxman is one where an SMS indicates that SARS is conducting an audit on a tax refund. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taxpayers are prompted to click a link, leading to a phishing site that steals user information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Echoing the oft-repeated warning, the revenue service urged users to avoid messages from unknown sources and refrain from clicking on links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSARS will never send you hyperlinks to other websites. Beware of emails or SMSs asking for personal, tax, banking or eFiling details,\u201d the revenue service said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scam joins the long list of prototypes taxpayers should look for, especially during tax season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standard Bank\u2019s Head of Fraud Risk Management, Athaly Khan, said that fraud tends to pick up significantly during filing season, with criminals looking to exploit diligent taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This includes extortion scams, with Khan stating that criminals will claim to be investigating a taxpayer\u2019s return submission, having discovered discrepancies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fraudsters often threaten penalties or criminal prosecution, giving false documentation to substantiate their allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIntimidation and manipulation tactics may be used to instil fear and panic so that you can follow their instructions,\u201d Khan noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fraudsters will then ask for money when they believe that the customer is convinced, requesting payments to be paid over to them to make the case disappear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once satisfied that the customer is convinced, fraudsters usually ask for money to be paid to make the case disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They may also provide the customer with a fraudulent account number to transfer funds, potentially due to SARS, to secure the money while they \u201cinvestigate.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In most cases, they claim to collaborate with the bank, law enforcement or regulatory bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a simpler case, fraudsters also send fake communications with banking details, claiming taxpayers owe SARS funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some customers may have funds due to SARS, which makes the communication seem legit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nedbank has warned its customers over the rise of scammers targeting taxpayers in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":815127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[1799,3246],"class_list":["post-832519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-nedbank","tag-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832519","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\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832519"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832604,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832519\/revisions\/832604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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