A former Tenerife timeshare owner has been caught in a new con. This savvy ex-owner thought he would never be caught out again after fighting a court case against a resale company.
Reverend Mike Johnson, 75, a priest from Faversham was conned out of several thousands by fraudsters claiming to be from HMRC, even after talking to the legitimate HMRC and making all the checks he possibly could.
Over the course of one month in November 2016, Mr Turer received what looked like genuine calls and emails from a HMRC representative called Paul Turner.
The phone number Paul Tuner used was 0203 582 6814, a London looking phone number, which he confirmed by telling Mr Turner that his address was 100 Parliament Street London SW1A 2BQ – a genuine HMRC address – and claimed his government employment number was- CE162453. An 0203 telephone numbers are one of the easiest VOIP numbers to purchase. A VOIP number means anyone, anywhere in the world can use this number to dial out of, fooling anyone receiving the call as to where they are being called from.
When Reverend Johnson called the 0203 number, it was always answered, “HMRC, how can I help” or was a recorded message saying, “All lines are currently engaged, please leave a message.” Again, another easily engineered trick that can be set up on any VOIP service.
Revered Johnson of St James, Sheldwich, said: “All calls were put through an alleged ‘switchboard’ with at least three people speaking to me before transferring the line to Paul.” He added, “Though my suspicions were raised several times, Paul always seemed concerned, appearing to see my dilemma. I trusted him. The scam was real.”
He was asked to pay €2,400 to receive the £16,800, following an alleged success in a legal action he had taken in Spain years ago. After all monies were paid to “HMRC” he failed to receive any monies back as promised.
The priest receives no wage or housing and “not willing to allow further upset, drew on savings and moved on” butdid contact the authorities to ensure no one else got caught out. “Everyone I contacted were very supportive. This included HMRC, who described my experience as a very sophisticated and clever scam. They were aware of other scams allegedly from HMRC. They said they have recently introduced greater controls which resulted in 300 million fewer fraudulent emails claiming to be from HMRC. This shows how wide is problem is.”
A HMRC spokeswoman said that they are aware that scams using their name are a regular occurrence, some people received telephone calls or emails, requesting payment for alleged tax debts or promising a tax refund.
She said: “HMRC takes taxpayer’s data security extremely seriously. HMRC will never notify you of a tax rebate, offer you repayment, or ask you to disclose personal or financial details by email or by text, and we recommend that if you cannot verify the identity of a caller that you do not speak to them. We continue our work with law enforcement agencies around the world to bring down the criminals behind these scams. Last year HMRC closed more than 14,000 fake websites and continues to protect customers by constantly searching for these types of activity.”
Anyone who has received an HMRC email that they suspect is a scam is asked to send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk without opening any links or attachments that are enclosed.
For more information regarding this article or assistance in any other timeshare related issues please contact the TCA on 01908 881058 or email: info@TimeshareConsumerAssociation.org.uk