PEOPLE in Huddersfield are being targeted by conmen promising tax refunds.

Now the public is being warned against a scam email which promises a refund from the tax man.

It claims that a recent calculation has discovered money is owed to you.

It includes an individual “refund form” which must be completed in 24 hours.

The form requests items of personal information such as mother’s maiden names which could be used to access bank details.

It ends with the address of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs service and a link to the website in a bid to add authenticity.

There are fears that following media coverage of recent postal notifications which advise of under and overpayments of tax, computer users may be tricked into thinking emails are legitimate.

It also follows a scam in which phone calls were made to persuade the public to give over personal details on the proviso they were talking to a tax officer.

HMRC has been quick to stress that they never contact the public by email.

Attempting to gain private information which could be used to access cash in this way is known as “phishing”.

Thousands of the emails were sent out on the run up to the January 31 tax deadline, to coincide with people expecting genuine tax refunds.

A spokesman for HMRC said: “We continuously monitor systems and customer records to guard against fraudulent activity.

“The methods fraudsters use to obtain the information they want is constantly changing, so HMRC provides regular updates on the type of scams it is aware of.

“The main risk involves the stealing of identity or access details. Please do everything you can to ensure that the identifiers and passwords you use when accessing HMRC systems are kept secure and updated regularly.

“You should not divulge your online user ID and password to anyone. Any suspicious activity should be reported to HMRC immediately.

“HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate by email, or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by email. If you have received an email claiming to be from HMRC that you suspect may be fraudulent, please forward it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

You can see an online archive of similar fraudulent emails by accessing www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/index.htm