HMRC, DVLA and the government impersonation scams

Two messages, opposite emotions, identical mechanism. One says you are owed a refund. One says you owe a fine. Both want you on a page typing in your card details inside the next five minutes.

What the real ones do

the IRS will never text or email you a link to claim a refund. Refunds appear in your online tax account or arrive by bank transfer or cheque. If you are genuinely owed money, doing nothing costs you nothing.

your state DMV will never text you about a refund, a fine or an unpaid tax bill with a payment link. They write to the registered keeper's address. A text about your vehicle is a scam close to a hundred percent of the time.

Neither will ever threaten you with immediate arrest, ask you to stay on the line, or ask for payment in vouchers or cryptocurrency. This sounds too obvious to say until you are the one on the phone, which is exactly why it is said.

The tells, in the message itself

• A link that is not a .gov.uk domain. Real government services live on gov.uk and nowhere

else. Not hmrc-refunds.com, not gov-uk-tax.net, not dvla.org.uk.

• A deadline. "Within 24 hours or your case is escalated." Real correspondence gives you weeks

and a reference number.

• A sum designed not to alarm you. £268.34 sounds like a real refund calculation. £5,000 would

make you suspicious.

• Asking for your full card details. No government body needs your CVV to pay you money.

The one habit worth building

Never act on a message about money from a link inside it. Go to gov.uk yourself, or ring the number on a letter you already had. Every single one of these scams dies at that step, which is why the messages work so hard to stop you taking it.

If you want to check the address before you go anywhere near it, our link checker reads it structurally and tells you what the real domain is, without opening the page.

If you already entered your details

1. Ring your bank now, on the number on your card. Speed matters more than anything else here. 2. If it was your Government Gateway login, change the password and turn on two-factor. 3. Report it: forward scam texts to 7726 (free), and report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and the FBI's IC3. 4. Expect a follow-up call from "your bank" over the next few days. That is the second half of the scam, and it is more convincing than the first.

The part people are embarrassed about

These work on accountants, on solicitors, on people who write software. They work because they arrive on a normal Tuesday while you are doing something else, and they are designed by people who do this full time. Getting caught says nothing about you. Telling someone quickly is the only thing that matters.