We have been notified that there is a scam email which was recently sent to one of our clients purporting to be from HMRC, and no doubt trying to take account of the unfamiliarity of the sector with HMRC VAT processes.

Where you can see “xxx” at the top and bottom of the email highlighted in yellow, these contained the name and address of the school concerned. Our client has asked us to remove these from this email, but it did look convincing.

Similarly, one assumes that where you are asked to click on the Government Gateway portal, this is no doubt where they will either seek to install some sort of malware product or entice you to provide details with which they can use to defraud you.

HMRC will not contact you in this way so please do not click on the link or respond in any way to this email. Below you can see an example of the fraudulent email.

We have reported this to HMRC but urge you to do the same. A clear giveaway is the sender’s use of a name and the email address.

For further guidance on what to look out for and how schools can safeguard against cyber attacks, read our cyber security article in our latest schools briefing here. If you have any concerns over this email, then please speak to your usual haysmacintyre contact, or visit our VAT on School Fees page here.