Another warning for taxpayers

'Be wary of a sense of urgency or pressure.'

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While tax filing season is a time of economic alignment and fiscal responsibility, it is also a prime opportunity for cybercriminals to exploit unsuspecting taxpayers.

With the South African Revenue Service (SARS) introducing pre-assessments to simplify submissions for taxpayers, fraudsters and scammers are capitalising on this to craft sophisticated scams that mimic official communications.

The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) warns this heightened activity demands vigilance from the public.

"Fraudsters are exceptionally active during this period and taxpayers must stay alert to the latest tactics being used to steal personal data and funds," says Manie van Schalkwyk, CEO of SAFPS.

He says scammers impersonate SARS officials and persuade and manipulate victims into voluntarily surrendering sensitive data under false pretences or even into paying them money.

There are a few scam tactics that the public should be aware of to protect themselves, such as phishing e-mails and text messages, impersonation, eFiling profile hijacking and fraudulent letters of demand to pay up.

Phishing e-mails and text messages

Van Schalkwyk warns that criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated and phishing e-mails and text messages look very realistic.

"Our brains are conditioned to gloss over subtle differences unless we are actively scanning for them. This is exactly what makes these tactics so dangerous."

Scammers send messages from a fake SARS e-mail address containing a link to a fraudulent website, often changing a single character in the hyperlink, like replacing South Africa with South Africa, using a special character that looks similar to the original (in this example, the normal i has been replaced with an ì).