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Johannesburg – A new scam is hitting South African taxpayers.
A Johannesburg Fin24 user was contacted on her cellphone this week by a supposed SA Revenue Service (Sars) official called "Fiona".
She told the user that Sars had not received her income tax return yet, following last week's deadline.
The user found this strange, since she had submitted her tax return in person at a Sars office in Johannesburg.
“Fiona said I should fax her the first page of the ITR12 document given to me by Sars after my submission, as proof that I had indeed done so.”
The page contains her bank account details and signature.
The fax number was continually engaged and the user couldn't send the document through.
When she then called Sars, they confirmed that her return was already on record. They told her that the fax number is not a Sars number.
Sars will never call taxpayers directly, warns Malerato Sekha, senior communications officer of Sars. Correspondence will be through letters or email.
Recent tax scams have used email, fake websites and SMSs to obtain information from users.
"Beware of emails that ask for personal, tax, banking and eFiling details (login credentials, passwords, pins, credit/debit card information, etc) as Sars will never ask taxpayers for such information in an email," Sars warned.
- Fin24
