23 July 2019

We are aware of several clients who have recently received the following scam email that appears to be from Inland Revenue.

The email appears very convincing and contains legitimate logos, staff names and other references that appear in authentic Inland Revenue correspondence.

Here are a few tell-tale signs of scams:

• The email, phone call or text may be threatening. The scammer might demand money.
• They might want to be paid in unusual ways such as gift cards (for example, iTunes cards), bitcoins or money transfer systems.
• The scammer may pressure you to make a decision or do something quickly.
• They might ask for passwords to your online accounts. Legitimate organisations will never ask for passwords.
• A scammer may ask for your bank account details. Inland Revenue will never ask you to email or text this information – they will always ask you to supply this through myIR.
• Scammers often give website or email addresses that are wrong but look almost right. For example, they might send you to ird.co.nz, ird.qovt.nz or ird.gov.nz, instead of the correct ird.govt.nz

If you receive an email that you think might be a scam, use your mouse to hover over a link without clicking. This will let you see if the website address they are sending you to is accurate and relevant to the email you received.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like any help or further information. If you have clicked on any links in an email like this, then please call us to discuss further.