{"id":861559,"date":"2026-06-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861559"},"modified":"2026-06-12T16:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T14:04:10","slug":"sars-scam-warning-for-south-african-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/861559\/sars-scam-warning-for-south-african-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"SARS scam warning for South African taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tax filing season in South Africa is around the corner, and taxpayers across the country have been warned to exercise discretion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tax season for individual taxpayers (non-provisional) will open on 13 July 2026 and run to 23 October 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Auto assessments will begin close to two weeks earlier, starting 1 July 2026 and running through to 12 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-provisional taxpayers are those who earn a regular salary or wage from an employer and have PAYE deducted throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thalia Pillay, co-founder and CEO of Orca Fraud, said that tax season leads to a predictable spike in messages claiming to be from SARS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Check your SMS inbox or email inbox. There\u2019s a good chance a message claiming to be from SARS is already waiting for you,” said Pillay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Whether it\u2019s a tax refund you never filed for or an urgent settlement demand designed to trigger panic.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS also moved entirely to digital correspondence, discounting physical mail for all system-generated letters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pillay said that this leads to more legitimate SARS communication landing in inboxes and SMS threads, which also means more plausible cover for scams designed to look like it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When you’re expecting to hear from SARS, a message that looks like SARS is easier to act on without checking,” she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four scams typically are in circulation during the filing windows, with Pillay providing a breakdown of each and how to spot them: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake settlement notification<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Orca co-founders Thalia Pillay (Right) and Carla Wilby (Left)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A common type of fraud is one where an email and SMS arrive with an outstanding tax amount, specific, urgent, due by a named date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Payment instructions are included, including a bank account number and a reference, while the language is formal and pressured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“SARS has documented this exact scam and is clear on the rules: it will never request banking details by post, email, or SMS, and it will never provide a bank account number for payment,” said Pillay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All legitimate tax payments go through eFiling or the SARS payment portal. Genuine SARS correspondence always includes your taxpayer reference number, your ID number, and your name.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake refund SMS<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Another scam involves taxpayers receiving a message claiming a refund has been issued to their account for a specific amount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message then instructs you to click a link to verify your details or link your credit card to receive it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SARS never asks for credit card details; refunds are paid to the bank account registered on your eFiling profile, so no link-tapping or card linking is required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake letter of demand<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

“A more threatening message: SARS has issued a letter of demand, a court summons is imminent, and blacklisting may follow,” said Pillay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A link or attachment leads to a phishing site designed to harvest your information. SARS has specifically flagged this type. It will not send you hyperlinks to other websites, including to banks or legal notices.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that any genuine legal action from SARS is visible in your eFiling profile and is not delivered via a link in an unsolicited message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fake auto-assessment or compliance notice<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
SARS Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

One may also be prompted to confirm their compliance status, banking details, or complete their auto-assessment via a link. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pillay said that the destination of the link is a proxy website that mimics the eFiling interface. SARS doesn’t send links to external websites for compliance purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you need to complete your auto-assessment or update your banking details, it is better to go to SARS directly. “Do not use a link from a message to get there,” warned Pillay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orca Fraud CEO Thalia Pillay has broken down some of the most common types of scams targetting taxpayers in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":780565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[25489,3246],"class_list":["post-861559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-orca-fraud","tag-sars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861559","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=861559"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863554,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861559\/revisions\/863554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}