The alerts from the Tax Authority (AT) indicate a growing trend of scams posing as the Finance Department. DECO PROTeste highlights that the schemes are becoming increasingly convincing and offers tips to recognize and avoid them.
“The AT alerts for fraudulent emails or SMS messages reveal that the tactics of these scams are becoming more sophisticated. The fraudsters write on behalf of the Finance Department with a fake sender that can mislead recipients,” the consumer protection organization states.
DECO PROTeste provides recommendations to identify Finance Department scams in three steps:
- “The AT does not send payment links for taxes or fines via SMS or email, nor does it request payments through MB Way. Generally, tax assessments and billing notices are mailed by CTT to the taxpayer’s address or through the Finance Portal’s electronic notification if the taxpayer has subscribed to the service.
- If you receive a reference number for a payment via Multibanco without having initiated it, be cautious. This payment process is always initiated by the taxpayer, and the payments are always made to the State, without exception. Without your initiation, no Multibanco reference is sent for payment—either by SMS, Multibanco, or MB Way—nor is any other IBAN indicated other than that of the Public Treasury and Debt Management Agency—IGCP. This does not preclude receiving a reminder for a tax payment, for example, if your email is registered in the Finance database.
- If a payment request for a tax or fine raises doubts, confirm on the Finance Portal if you owe anything (option “Tax Debts”).”
The consumer protection organization also offers tips to avoid fraudulent messages:
- “Check the message sender’s legitimacy. For emails, official sources do not use generic domains like Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, or Yahoo, nor unknown ones.
- Be wary of messages with a high sense of urgency or opportunity.
- Be suspicious of links that seem questionable. It’s best to avoid clicking on them or downloading attached files.
- Pay attention to alerts from official entities like the Tax Authority and Social Security. When they detect fraud, they tend to issue alerts.
- Check for spelling errors and coherence in sentences. However, the methods used by fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated, so consumers should not rely solely on this rule.
- Do not share your personal data with senders or websites that do not seem secure.”
Some taxpayers are “receiving messages supposedly from the AT asking them to click on provided links.” Do not be fooled!
