Tax refund scam

Hoax messages can appear genuine and carry the Inland Revenue logo. Photo / NZ Herald

The Inland Revenue Department is warning taxpayers not to respond to persistent hoax emails claiming to offer a tax refund.

IRD first issued a warning about bogus emails in March. That scam was closed down but another one surfaced in June and again last month.

The emails appear genuine and contain the IRD's logo. The recipient is asked to click on a link to claim a refund but when they do they are asked to supply bank or credit card details.

IRD says it never operates this way and is urging taxpayers to ignore the messages.

A spokesman said the department acted to have the sites shut down as quickly as possible, usually within 24 hours.

However the challenge was that the scamsters sent out a large number of emails through "zombie" personal computers, whose owners were unaware that they were being used in this way.

In the most recent cases the sites had been shut down. "Unfortunately, the people behind the scams have reproduced them by creating another fake website on a different computer server," the spokesman said.

"As these scams are sourced from overseas it is a particular challenge to track down those responsible."

IRD had put out warnings and had information about the scams on the front page of its website.

It was advising people to never click any links within a suspicious email, to not reply and to delete it from their inbox.

It was also encouraging taxpayers to report any hoax they received by forwarding the email to phishing@ird.govt.nz.

The department was co-operating with a number of organisations locally and internationally to develop its response process.