Warning issued to Britons about new National Insurance phone scam | Personal Finance | Finance
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The new phone scam that is circulating around has the fraudsters claiming to be from HMRC claiming that there is a “problem” or “issue” with the taxpayers National Insurance number. The scammers then say that the National Insurance number will be “suspended” as it is believed to be fraudulent. Twitter users have reported that the messages have both been recorded and delivered by the fraudster on the other end of the phone.
Twitter user, Nick Fletcher tweeted that he received the recorded phone message on 9 June.
Mr Fletcher said that the scammer had stated that his National insurance number and his passport would be suspended as there was a “problem” with his National Insurance submission.
Mr Fletcher immediately knew it was a scam and ended the call. At the end of his tweet, Mr Fletcher added: “Seriously, who falls for this sh*t?”
Another Twitter user had also received a fraudulent call with the same premise.
READ MORE: ‘So convincing!’ Britons warned about sinister National Insurance scam phone call
Another Twitter user had also received a fraudulent call with the same premise.
Under the account @KBelle_Arts, the user claimed that the call she received had claimed that her national insurance number had been used “fraudulently”.
The user then questioned the scammer on the phone asking them to explain what the call was about; however, the fraudster couldn’t answer the question.
In the tweet, @KBelle_Arts said: “Scammers need to try harder to make their scams more believable. I just had a call from “HM Revenue & Customs”, about my national insurance being “fraudulent “.
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The user also added that there were “several other red flags” which indicated that it was a scam with the main being that the call was made from a mobile number.
In a follow up tweet, the Twitter user said: “HMRC would never call me, if they needed to contact me, it would be through the Jobcentre, not directly.”
A third user under the name of @HHeart76 also tweeted a warning on 7 June.
They shared a London phone number saying that the caller was “really into the conversation” until the Twitter user had some fun and gave them the postcode of “SC4 MM3R”. The scammer then swore and ended the phone call.
With the cost of living crisis currently putting a severe strain on people’s finances, Action Fraud is concerned that many may be more vulnerable to fall for calls, texts or emails of this nature.
Every few weeks, the fraud group renews the statement: “HMRC won’t notify you of a tax rebate, or ask you to share personal/payment information by email or by phone”, and encourages those who are suspicious to report the incident to either Action Fraud or to the tax authority.
If you receive a suspicious text you can also report it, free of charge, by forwarding the text to 7726 which is the number for the National Cyber Security Centre and Action Fraud.
Cyber Protect UK stated that by doing this, Britons have already helped remove and shut down over 12,000 scams already this year.
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