A typical email for the phishing scam.

A typical email for the phishing scam.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma23/03/2018 00:00
TW
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With the time for tax returns and income declarations about to start, the Tax Agency is warning of potential fraud that uses the declaration as the bait. The chief of the agency in the Balearics, Arnau Cañellas, is aware that the problem typically surfaces at this time of the year. Emails are sent which seek to elicit bank account information. He says that the agency never requests this sort of information by email, and this is stated on its website.

The phishing scam includes trying to get bank or credit card details, but Cañellas adds that the agency never makes charges or refunds to cards. The emails, masquerading as coming from the agency, say that there is an amount to be refunded. In order to process this, the user is asked for an identity number, date of birth, card number and the three secret numbers.

Cañellas stresses that if anyone has reason to query the authenticity of an email, text message or information regarding an appointment, contact can be made with the customer help service (901 200 347).

The agency will release information about any novelties for this year's tax returns during the first week of April, when it will also announce inspection campaigns to detect fraud, in particular that related to holiday rentals.

Last year, a total of 176,665 taxpayers in the Balearics received refunds.