Inland Revenue warns taxpayers to ignore scam message that may look legit

Inland Revenue warned on Saturday that electronic messages are circulating with the government domain @gov.cy purporting to be from the tax office and requesting banking information from recipients “in order to receive a refund”.

The message states: “During an audit on your tax return we were able to establish that, you are entitled to state compensation due to your own overpayment – you will receive a refund of €..- Verify your bank and personal details in advance to receive a refund… “

“The above message is intended to intercept bank account details of unsuspecting citizens and the Tax Department urges those who have received such a message to ignore them,” Inland Revenue said.

It is also made it clear that the tax department communicates with the public only through e-mail addresses ending in: @tax.mof.gov.cy, and that tax refunds are made only by transfer to a bank account whose IBAN is declared by the taxpayer to Inland Revenue with secure procedures through a specific form.