A man was left feeling “overwhelmed” after he received a scam phone call purportedly from HMRC threatening him with legal action.

The man contacted the tax authority over X to report the incident and ask if the phone call was genuine.

He asked the customer support team: “I just received a very worrying automated call saying it was HMRC and to hit button 1 but then nothing it went quiet

“I have looked it up and it may be a scam? Can you advise please.”

A representative responded to confirm the call was fake and sent a link to this webpage to report the incident.

The man then said: “The call said they were from HMRC it was automated and said they were sending a letter to my home and they were proceeding with legal action and I was to hit number 1 to speak to an advisor.

“This definitely a scam? I was so overwhelmed.” HMRC responded again to clarify “it’s definitely a scam”.

Scammers sometimes create fake phone calls such as this imitating a legitimate organisation to try and dupe the victim into handing over personal or financial information.

HRMC issued a warning earlier this week about a new scam targeting businesses and invites them to scan a QR code.

The group said: “While we use QR codes, we will never take you to a page where you have to input personal information.”

The tax authority further explained how it uses QR codes, in two different ways. The first is in its letters and correspondence.

The group said: “The QR will usually take you to guidance on GOV.UK, but where it doesn’t, we will tell you. A QR code will never take you to a page where you have to input personal information.”

The other way QR codes are used by HMRC is to redirect users to different web pages. It explained: “When you are logged into your HMRC account we might use QR codes to redirect you, for example to your bank login page.

“If we’re using QR codes in communications you’ll be able to see them on the genuine HMRC contacts page.”

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