Impersonating tax authorities to commit fraud, what did the General Department of Taxation say?

Recently, impersonation of tax officials and other authorities to defraud and appropriate property during the peak month of tax settlement has caused confusion among people.

Faced with this situation, at the first quarter 2024 press conference of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Mai Son - Deputy General Director of the General Department of Taxation said that the agency has researched the tricks used by scammers and made recommendations to taxpayers.

First, the Tax Authority affirmed that it "does not authorize any individual outside the Tax Authority to collect taxes on their behalf". At the same time, it warned taxpayers that when receiving calls, they should contact the tax authority directly through official channels for support to avoid being taken advantage of by scammers.

"The General Department of Taxation will strictly handle cases of data disclosure, leakage, and sale in accordance with the law," Mr. Mai Son emphasized.

In order to help taxpayers avoid online fraud, especially during the current tax settlement period, the General Department of Taxation recommends that people never provide personal information or bank account information to anyone over the phone or on social networks.

At the same time, carefully check all communications, especially requests to transfer money or provide information over the phone. Do not allow any individual to directly access your computer/phone to assist in installing and using tax agency software.

In particular, absolutely do not click on links attached in text messages, zalo... claiming to be tax agencies or representatives providing instructions on tax procedures.

Deputy Director General of the General Department of Taxation Mai Son speaks at the press conference (Photo: Thuy Duong)

Taxpayers should contact the tax authorities directly through official channels if they receive any suspicious requests. Save evidence such as text messages or call recordings and report to the authorities if fraudulent behavior is detected.

At the same time, proactively install the eTaxmobile application on Apple store or Google Play to look up your tax information, such as tax payable, tax paid, overpaid tax, fines, tax debt enforcement... and look up tax refund notices, progress, and processing status of tax records that people have sent to the tax authority, to avoid being taken advantage of by scammers.

To help taxpayers avoid the risk of fraud, the Tax Authority has coordinated with functional forces such as the Police and the Ministry of Information and Communications to combat and strictly handle violators.

Accordingly, the authorities have been and are taking drastic measures to combat, detect and handle these criminals. However, the most important thing is that each citizen needs to raise their vigilance and be cautious in all situations.

The General Department of Taxation recommends that taxpayers, when receiving phone calls from people pretending to be tax officials, should stay calm in the face of threats and pressure, should not rush to provide personal information via phone or email, should not follow instructions to install fake applications or links; and should immediately notify the local police agency for support and advice.

Common tricks include impersonating tax officials: claiming to be officials from the tax department or tax branch, calling to request information, sending images of licenses and citizen identification cards to receive instructions on tax reduction and refund procedures, serving inspection work as well as calls to instruct on installing applications to receive information from tax authorities.

Second, impersonating tax authorities to make threatening phone calls, reporting tax law violations to threaten and entice people to use fraudulent tricks to appropriate taxpayers' assets.

Impersonating messages and emails from the General Department of Taxation: sending messages or emails containing links to files containing malicious code or requests to install software or update personal information or bank account information.

Impersonating tax authority websites to commit fraud through tax payment authorization or illegal invoice trading.

Impersonating authorities , sending fake VNeID repair public service links for people to access, with advertisements for integrating citizen identification and tax codes or advertising a project to use personal identification codes as tax codes, then taking control of the phone and taking all the money in the bank account .

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/gia-danh-co-quan-thue-de-lua-dao-lanh-dao-tong-cuc-thue-noi-gi-a656550.html