Warning on SARS scam
2009-02-19
THE South African Revenue Service (Sars) has warned taxpayers against a number of current scams, which seek to defraud them of money or attempt to obtain their bank and other personal details. Two scams have been noted, with fraudsters claiming to be from SARS. The first involves e-mails being sent to unsuspecting taxpayers informing them that they are owed an Income Tax refund and requesting them to complete a refund form, in order to receive the fictitious refund. This “refund form” – which copies the Sars eFiling logo and website style - requires taxpayers to provide their debit or credit card number and pin numbers. The second scam is aimed at VAT vendors and also uses a copied SARS eFiling letterhead. It requests that VAT vendors make all VAT payments into a fraudulent bank account. Both scams have been referred to the police and SARS’s criminal investigation divisions for further investigation. * A pharmacy in Wellington recently almost became victim to a scam when R79 000 was paid into their bank account. The depositor appeared to be SARS, and shortly hereafter they received a call from a person claiming to be from SARS and stating that they had accidentally paid the money into the pharmacy’s account. They were requested to reverse the deposit. But the financial manager smelled a rat. She told the caller that the head of SARS would have to deliver a letter to them stating the dispute. Needless to say, they never heard from ‘SARS’ again. The public is warned to give any personal information over the telephone or internet, but rather contact the company personally. * The amount of R20 000 which Drakenstein Municipality mistakenly deposited into the account of an Absa account holder last year, has not yet been recovered. The Municipality is taking legal steps against Absa to access the details of the account holder.
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