Man 'sucked in' by latest IRD email scam over unlucky coincidence

Monday, 22 July 2019

It can be awkward when you try out a phone scam, only to realise you have called the police by mistake. (Video first published August 29, 2018)

One man has fallen for an online scam thanks to an unfortunate IRD coincidence.

Inland Revenue issued a warning on Monday after receiving over 900 reports of a 'bogus' email offering Kiwis a tax refund.

Unfortunately, for one Kiwi man, who Stuff agreed not to name, the refund amount they were offering was similar to the amount owed to him by Inland Revenue.

One Kiwi man fell for the latest Inland Revenue scam sweeping inboxes due to an incredible coincidence.

He described the whole situation as 'quite coincidental'.

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If you received an email offering tax refunds over the weekend, you might have been targeted in a 'very wide spread scam'.

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Knowing he was due a $400 refund by the tax department, when the email arrived in his inbox over the weekend he thought they were related.

'Bugger me, I get this email scam… but I thought this must be the same thing,' he told Stuff.

The scam asks people to recruit friends for a book exchange.

'I was sucked in by it.'

On Monday morning, he followed the instructions in the email - he clicked the link and entered his credit card details.

It wasn't until he saw the warning on Stuff on Monday afternoon that he realised his mistake - but he wasn't too worried.

'The credit card is right up to its limit so they can't get much,' he laughed.

Instead, he voiced his annoyance with having to close his bank account and open a new one.

'It's a damn nuisance.'

While he acknowledged it's not the fault of Inland Revenue, he believes it's 'not good enough' for Inland Revenue to simply put the responsibility on those who have received these emails and expect them not to fall for it.

'This one was pretty on the mark, despite what the IRD says.'

But ultimately, he doesn't blame the government department for the scam. 'That's not the IRD's fault, that's just part of living.'

Inland Revenue spokesperson Sharon Thompson said there are a few telltale mistakes in the fraudulent email.

'Embedded links can look quite convincing at first glance as ird.govt.nz can be included within the address. But if you hover over those links, you'll see Inland Revenue is not the destination,' Thompson said in a statement.

Another indicator is the mention of a monetary amount, Thompson explained valid correspondence from IRD doesn't include a dollar value.

'In this particular scam, there is also no personalised greeting and what's listed as a person's IRD number is a wrong number.'

A number of Kiwis reached out to Stuff explaining they too received the scam email. Many were quick to delete it or alert Inland Revenue.

Inland Revenue was contacted for further comment.

Have you been targeted by an email scam? Get in touch at newstips @stuff.co.nz.