Martin Lewis warns fraudsters pretending to be from HMRC are scamming Brits

14 March 2019, 11:30 | Updated: 14 March 2019, 13:00

The Money Saving Expert founder has revealed that fraudsters are calling members of the British public to con them out of cash but pretending they owe unpaid taxes.

Martin Lewis has warned about a worrying new scam involving fraudsters pretending to work for HMRC to con members of the public out of their money.

The money saving expert, 46, took to Twitter with the stark warning.

He said: "Beware a spate of SCAM HMRC calls eg "there's warrant for ur arrest," "you're being done for fraud!" so "we need money today!"

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They can spoof it so it comes from HMRC's actual number. Never pay. Call HMRC from ANOTHER phone if u want to check."

The most worrying part about this new scam is the criminal's ability to fake HMRC's number making it hard to detect whether it is a legitimate phone call or not.

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However HMRC have scams like this under their radar and according to The Mirror eradicated 16,000 malicious websites pretending to be them in the past year.

Treasury Minister Mel Stride MP, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury said: “We know that HMRC is the most spoofed government brand as criminals try to take advantage of the fact that everyone has some involvement with the tax authority."

To keep yourself save, always follow these Action Fraud guidelines:

- Recognise the signs of fraud: HMRC or banks will never contact you and ask for PIN, password or bank details.

- Don't give you private information or reply to calls and texts you weren't expecting.

- Report it: Any fraudulent activity should be reported to Action Fraud or forwarded to this HMRC email address - phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk.