SARS VAT scam

[duncan drennan]

I got a phone call this afternoon from Mike claiming to be from SARS. Apparently a VAT refund was due and they needed my banking details to pay it back.

"Hmmm," I wondered, "they certainly seemed to know where to take the money from last time I submitted VAT, how strange that they seem to have misplaced it."

After reading here about all the scams going on, I'm prudent not to pass out to much information about me or my business. Being the prudent (and informed) business owner I suggested to Mike that maybe there was some problem, seen as SARS has been happily taking my money for a while now. I suggested that he send me the information about the refund so I could have a look at that. I kindly gave him my fax number.

After concluding my call with Mike, I decided to call my friendly SARS office (national line 0860 12 12 18) to enquire about this supposed VAT refund.

LO AND BEHOLD! You would not believe it! They had my banking details on file, and had no record of anyone contacting me. "Hmmm, prudence is paying I thought to myself," while the friendly SARS lady congratulated me for not giving out my banking details to these fraudsters.

One sad part to my tale: I called SARS fraud hotline (0860 00 28 70), but unfortunately without any payments having occurred they cannot investigate the matter.

Tax payer beware! (what's the latin for that?)

Quick moral of the story: NEVER, EVER give out your bank details to strangers, and call SARS (or whoever) on the contact number given on their website.

[Dave A]

I wonder what the next stage of the scam would have been? Getting your bank details only gets you so far as long as you don't give away PINs and the like.

Perhaps the bad deposit/refund scam?

[duncan drennan]

Perhaps the bad deposit/refund scam?

Sorry! I forgot to comment on that.

Yes, that is what I expect from what SARS said. Basically pay a "VAT refund" into my account, whoops, it was a mistake, please pay it back immediately. Then "refund" is a fraudulent cheque, etc., and oh bugger, I just gave my money to some stranger.

The SARS fraud hotline lady told me that they could only investigate if money had actually been paid, which I can understand - they need some paper trail to follow.

[Dave A]

Not interested until you've been defrauded, and not able to do anything after.

I wonder why these fraudsters are not being stopped?

[duncan drennan]

Anyone know who can be contacted about this? What would be best, give them your bank details, and then contact SAPS/SARS to setup a trap? To go through this whole process is a lot of energy directed away from your business though.

[Dave A]

I've been down that route. SAPS was not interested. Commercial branch was not interested.

The party most interested was my bank. One interesting feature of our "incident" was that the "stolen" cheque used for the bad deposit only bounced once it was clear that the game was well and truly up - about 9 days later. I suspect that warranted an internal enquiry, but I never got any feedback as to how that turned out. Can't blame the bank for that.

[Sieg]

SARS impersonation scam

I also had one of those calls. Went something like this: "Hello Sir, this is Joe Bloggs from SARS. I need to speak to you about your VAT refund and . . " I interrupt him with "Vat refund? That's great. Terrific. Lekker, I like getting money. Tell you what, have the cash ready for me at your local SARS office where I usually pay and I'll pick it up at 11 tomorrow? OK?" I put the phone down before he could reply. Had no more calls from this turkey after that one.


Sieg

[Marq]

Tax payer beware! (what's the latin for that?)

This is the closest I think..........
Potes currere sed te occulere non potes - You can run, but you can't hide

[Dave A]

Potes currere sed te occulere non potes - You can run, but you can't hide

I love that

[duncan drennan]

More reporting on the same VAT scam on Ideate, and an article from Fin24 in 2006.

[warthogweb]

VAT scam resurfaces with a difference

Got a call about a refund but paid no notice.

Next day another call saying that I was due R85,000 and was this my account number.

This was followed by a fax purportedly from SARS informing me of a mistaken deposit.

Followed by a phone call asking whether I received the fax. Replied saying that nothing had been deposited and I would make damn sure where the money came from and where it was going after it had cleared. Mr 'John Ndlovu' then got snippy and told me 'it was my time' if I wanted to make further enquiries.

The fax had the Durban SARS address and was from the 'VAT Inspectorate'. There were no phone numbers other than a fax to report the deposit and a cellphone number (0828609780).

Strange thing is - although they had my bank account No., the business name they thought I was, I only ever - ever - traded as once, several years ago on a Yellow Pages ad.

There then appears to be some connection with Yellow Pages.

[Martinco]

Not interested until you've been defrauded, and not able to do anything after.

I wonder why these fraudsters are not being stopped?

Another problem that could arise from this is that with your bank account # the fraudster could attempt a logon 3 times with wrong password/s and your account gets blocked. I don't have to tell you the hassles you have to go through to get access to your account/s again.
I had this scenario 4 weeks ago and the end result was that I had to get 2 new banking cards and in the process lost the majority of my beneficiaries and in trying to recover the data the bank screwed up my accounts by mixing the beneficiaries from my two businesses.
Very frustrating !

[IanF]

Another problem that could arise from this is that with your bank account # the fraudster could attempt a logon 3 times with wrong password/s and your account gets blocked.(

Martin
Who are you with I am with FNB and have a user number which I log in with, this then takes me to my accounts. The user number is issued separately and you do not give out that number at all.

[duncan drennan]

Who are you with I am with FNB and have a user number which I log in with, this then takes me to my accounts. The user number is issued separately and you do not give out that number at all.

FNB requires a user name + password
Absa requires an account number + pin + password (only certain letters)
STD requires a card number + pin + password
Never had a Nedbank account

So I suppose that situation could happen with an Absa account.

[Martinco]

FNB requires a user name + password
Absa requires an account number + pin + password (only certain letters)
STD requires a card number + pin + password
Never had a Nedbank account

So I suppose that situation could happen with an Absa account.

Yes Duncan,

Happened on ABSA and for some reason that I cannot figure out on STD as well.
The STD still baffles me ! It could not have been an internal leak as only my wife does the IB and holds the cards.