SARS warns of new eFiling administrative penalty scam

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has warned of a new scam that claims that eFiling users owe the government body a massive administrative penalty.

SARS identified the scam last week, posting an example of an email on the SARS website.

In the example email, the taxpayer is told that they owe a penalty totalling R43 000.

The scam tells the user to download the attached statement and return a signed copy to SARS.

While SARS does not include the attachment in the example, it likely contains malware or fake payment details.

The scam would likely fool many users as it includes SARS’ helpdesk number and what appears to be a link to the eFiling website (though this link could possibly redirect to another website).

However, SARS usually sends notifications to taxpayers from the noreply@sars.gov.za email address with no attachments.

It is also possible that scammers were able to spoof the email address so that it appears to come from the SARS eFiling website. SARS notes that scammers have previously been able to spoof email accounts before.

SARS also advises taxpayers that it never sends htm or html attachments. You should also not open any attachments sent in these emails.

The revenue service also does not request personal or financial details, login details, or redirect users to other websites.

If you are unsure if correspondence is a scam, you can open a separate window and log into SARS eFiling to check if SARS has sent you any correspondence.

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