Advisory on Scam & Fraudulent Activities

Latest scams 

Dec 2018 – Scam Email – “Your tax records and open statements December 2018: The money for the state budget is also your money!”

Members of the public who receive emails with the subject heading “Your tax records and open statements December 2018: The money for the state budget is also your money!” are advised not to click on any link or download the attachment in the email.

A screenshot of the scam email is provided below for reference.

Nov 2018 - Scam Calls with Automated Voice Messages 

There have been reports from members of the public that they have received scam calls with automated voice messages, claiming to be calling on behalf of IRAS regarding investigations on a fraudulent case. The caller would also request for a return call. The phone number displayed on the caller ID include '3108 0946'.

IRAS would like to advise that it does not use automated messaging systems to contact members of the public for such purposes. Please ignore such calls and the caller's instructions. Members of the public who have received such calls are advised to lodge a police report.

Past Scams and Fraudulent Correspondence (347KB, PDF)      

There have been reported cases of individuals receiving emails, letters, Short Message Services (SMS), or phone calls purportedly from IRAS, requesting you to do one or more of the following:

• Open an email link or file attachment to review your income or tax statement;
• Transfer a sum of money, supposedly for tax purposes, to accounts belonging to named individuals (usually an overseas account); and/or
• Pay sums of money to named individuals (usually a party not residing in Singapore) before an inheritance/estate of a deceased party is released.
• Provide your bank account numbers to claim tax refunds, enjoy cash rewards, or pay outstanding tax bills; and/or
• Provide confidential personal information such as personal particulars, personal identification numbers, passwords and bank account numbers, either by completing a form on a website or to someone who impersonates as IRAS staff.

For your own interest, please be extra careful when you receive unsolicited emails, letters, SMSes, phone calls, online chats or all other forms of communication asking you to provide confidential or personal information. Under no circumstances should you give personal information including credit card or banking details to third parties via email, letter, SMS or phone.

Important Note:

1. Lately, scam emails that mimic IRAS’ email address ending with “ @iras.gov.sg” have been sent to some members of the public. Certain parts of the email details have been changed by the scammers to make them appear as if the email was sent by IRAS. Such scam emails usually carry a file attachment requesting the recipients to open it. You are advised not to click on any link or open any attachment in the email as it may contain computer virus.
2. IRAS does not send out official emails from personal email accounts such as Hotmail, Gmail, or other unfamiliar email domains. IRAS’ email replies are usually signed off with an officer's name, designation and contact information. IRAS also does not send out confidential documents such as tax return forms, notices of assessment, refund letters or other tax statements through unsecured emails. Confidential documents are deposited in the secured tax portal at mytax.iras.gov.sg. Taxpayers may log in to the portal using their SingPass to retrieve their tax statements or e-File their tax returns via mytax.iras.gov.sg.
3. IRAS will not ask you to provide your confidential personal details through emails. We encourage you to use myTax Mail to correspond with IRAS. If your enquiry contains confidential information, we will respond to you via myTax Mail.
4. IRAS officers will not call you outside of our helpline operating hours (Mondays to Fridays: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). If you receive any suspicious phone calls, we advise that you request the caller’s full name, telephone number and department, and validate this through our QSM helpline at 1800 356 8225.
5. For payments to IRAS made via Internet Banking, DBS Paylah!, ATM Bill Payment and AXS Mobile and Internet, you have to select ‘IRAS’ from the list of payees.
   
6. When you make a cheque payment for tax, it must only be made payable to one of the relevant payees, as given below :

• Comptroller of Income Tax
• Comptroller of Goods & Services Tax
• Comptroller of Property Tax
• Commissioner of Stamp Duties 
• Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
  

How to recognise scams

Here are some tips to recognise a scam:

• Promises of money for little or no effort
• Deals that sound too good to be true
• Peculiar email addresses and website URLs

How to report a scam

Anyone who has received a suspicious email, letter, SMS or phone call purportedly from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) should immediately contact IRAS to verify the authenticity of such request.

Do not respond to them or click on any hyperlink in the email. In the case of suspicious phone calls, you should request for the caller’s full name, telephone number and department and validate this through our QSM helpline at 1800 356 8225.

If you suspect that you have responded to a phishing scam with personal or financial information, you are advised to:

• lodge a police report;
• change the passwords or PINs on all your online accounts; and
• contact your banks to stop any transactions.