'HMRC' Fraud call

Regular Chatbox readers may have seen the following warning from timd:

"Just an alert about another phone scam but judging by the potential for distress and panic well worth making more well known.

"We had a call at our Audlem number this morning with a recorded message purporting to be from HMRC. It advised that HMRC were preparing a case against us and that we should press 1 immediately to talk to a case officer.

"A quick search on the internet confirmed that this is, of course, a scam that uses phone messages, texts or email. Introduced into UK numbers in the last month or so it has been widespread in America for some time. Perhaps the Editor and the financial 'gnomes of Audlem' could do a warning article to give this more prominence."

AudlemOnline adds: We are very happy to publish this warning. In any case, as in many people's experience HMRC hasn't yet learnt to answer the telephone, it's highly unlikely they can make calls!

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