Nurses working in the UK, as with all taxpayers in Britain, have been warned to be wary of any email claiming to be from HM Revenue & Customs (the tax office).
Numerous emails are now floating around the internet pretending to be from HMRC, some specifically aimed at nursing staff, as online fraudsters jump at the opportunity to defraud UK taxpayers.
This follows the recent tax code blunder which most of us are now familiar with.
So what's the scam? Online fraudsters are sending emails which appear to come directly from HMRC.
They usually attempt to forward you to some fake tax office website, which then asks for your bank or credit card details so that they can pay the (fake) refund directly into your account.
Once they have these details however, the tax refund never materialises.
In fact, the only thing you'll be left with is a very empty bank account.
Most of the emails we've come across look pretty convincing because they use the HMRC logo.
So how can I avoid the scam? The best way to avoid falling victim to this type of fraud is to ignore and delete any email which claims to have come from HMRC.
HMRC does not contact taxpayers by email, so anything which appears to come from them is only going to cause trouble! If you're using a tax company to help claim nurse tax relief or to claim employment expenses back, make sure you use an official Registered Agent of HM Revenue & Customs - and if you're unsure whether they're legitimate, ask for the company's HM Revenue & Customs Tax Agent reference number.
The staff employed by the lager tax relief agencies are generally very well trained and will be able to answer any queries you may have with regards to avoiding tax relief scams.
It is likely that tax relief scams will continue to be a threat to Nurses and other UK taxpayers alike for a while to come, at least until HMRC manages to apprehend all of the fraudsters out there.