Frauds during the tax return season: how to recognise them and what to do

Each year, between April and June, millions of citizens file their personal income tax return. And each year, taking advantage of that period of high fiscal activity, fraudsters deploy their most intense campaigns by impersonating the Tax Agency to steal data, credentials and money. These scams are especially effective because they exploit a context that already generates anxiety: dealing with the tax authorities involves obligations, deadlines and possible financial consequences, and when you receive a message that appears to be from the Tax Agency telling you that you have a refund pending, your natural level of alertness drops.

The most frequent forms are several. The pending-refund SMS, the most widespread: a message reporting a refund with a specific amount and a link to a website that replicates the tax authority’s portal, where bank details are requested. The urgent-regularisation email, which reports an irregularity or a debt and uses a threatening tone to prompt quick action. The call from the fake Tax Agency officer, who asks for data or a transfer. The fake tax-return filing website, which replicates Renta Web and positions itself in search engines through paid advertising to capture the identification credentials. And the fake online tax adviser, who offers cheap help to file the return and keeps the data.

Knowing how the real Tax Agency behaves is the best defence. It never sends SMS messages with links to request bank details; it never asks for bank details by email, because it pays refunds into the account already on its records; it never asks for urgent transfers by telephone, since debt payments are made through official channels; and its official portal is agenciatributaria.es.

The warning signs are clear: an SMS with a link that does not point to agenciatributaria.es; a sender with a domain other than agenciatributaria.gob.es; a message reporting an unexpected refund or an amount that does not add up; a request for bank details; and urgency with very short deadlines.

If you receive a suspicious message, do not click on any link or provide any data. Verify directly by accessing the official portal, typing the address into the browser, or by calling the official telephone number. And report the fraudulent message to the Tax Agency, which has specific channels, and to the security forces.

If you have already fallen for the scam, act immediately: call your bank to block the card and request the reversal of the transfer; change all your passwords, starting with those of the Tax Agency portal, the email and the bank; access the tax authority’s portal and verify that your return has not been modified; and file a complaint with the police with all the documentation.

These scams constitute an offence of fraud under Article 248 of the Criminal Code, with penalties of six months to three years in its basic form, aggravated when the loss exceeds 50,000 euros. The impersonation of the Tax Agency may additionally add offences of usurpation of public functions, so the perpetrators may face heavy sentences if the investigation allows them to be identified and the charges of all the victims to be combined.