Beware of scam e-mails on tax refunds claiming to be from IRAS, say police

SINGAPORE - If you receive an e-mail claiming to be from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) that asks you to process your tax refunds online, beware.

In an advisory on Jan 29, ahead of the annual tax season, the police said victims would receive unsolicited e-mails from scammers claiming to be from IRAS.

In the e-mails, victims would be informed that they were eligible for tax refunds, and asked to click on a link to process the application.

The link redirects victims to a Singpass verification page that would prompt them to give their personal credentials such as NRIC or Singpass login details, followed by their banking credentials or card details.

The victims would discover that they had been scammed only when they made checks with IRAS.

The police advised members of the public to ignore dubious clickable links that are sent through e-mails or SMSes claiming to be from IRAS.

“IRAS will not ask taxpayers for their banking credentials or card details through e-mails or SMSes for tax refund purposes,” said the police.

It added that any tax refunds are automatically credited to the taxpayers’ bank account registered with IRAS or their PayNow account linked to their NRIC, FIN or UEN.

IRAS does not process tax refunds to credit or debit cards, said the police.

Individuals can file their income tax

from March 1 to April 18 every year

. Taxpayers can check for updates on any refund on IRAS’

myTax Portal

.

Members of the public are advised to adopt precautionary measures to avoid being scammed, said the police.

These include installing the ScamShield app to block scam calls and filter out scams, checking with official sources, and telling others if they encounter scams.