Stewart McDonald – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stewart McDonald on 2015-10-27.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the quality of the information available for HM Revenue and Customs claimants to distinguish between genuine communications from Concentrix and phishing scams.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) undertakes a wide range of work to protect customers from websites which attempt to unlawfully obtain information. This includes:

• maintaining a portfolio of domains which could be used to confuse customers
• proactively monitoring the internet daily to identify sites which infringe on the brand, and taking appropriate legal action against them
• providing a mailbox service for the reporting of suspected phishing emails and websites.
  

  HMRC’s pages on GOV.UK make clear that Concentrix works on behalf of HMRC, and that some tax credits customers will receive a letter showing both logos. Neither HMRC, nor agencies working for HMRC, will ever ask for online banking or other information via email or over the phone that would enable an unauthorised person to access bank accounts or otherwise commit fraud.