Is this really from HMRC?
Last reviewed 2 September 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts
Paste the text or message here
The safety checks run in your browser; short messages get a scam-sign check.
Your letter is not kept. What Tax Letters reads is the redacted version below. Best practice: remove personal details before pasting; Tax Letters automatically redacts what it spots in case you miss something, and shows you what was removed. No filter catches everything, so leave bank details out.
Asking is the right instinct. Scammers copy real HMRC letters quickly, and, awkwardly, some genuine HMRC contact now arrives by text and email, including the current cryptoassets campaign. So neither "it looks official" nor "it came by text" settles anything. Here is what does.
The check that actually settles it
GOV.UK publishes lists of HMRC's own genuine contact. Match your letter, text, email, call or QR code against them:
- Letters · Text messages · Emails · Phone calls · QR codes
- Campaigns that use more than one method, which is where the current letter waves are listed
And verify by the front door, never the letter. If you want to speak to HMRC about it, find the number yourself on GOV.UK and call that, or sign in to your own HMRC online account and see whether the letter appears there. Never use a phone number, link or QR code from the message you are checking. A genuine letter survives that detour; a scam does not.
Signs that settle it fast
It is a scam. HMRC never takes payment that way.
It is a scam. Real HMRC letters give windows measured in days and weeks, and real enforcement is a slow, documented process.
It is a scam. Refunds are claimed through your own tax account on GOV.UK, free.
Treat it as genuine and work out what it means: find your letter here or paste it into the checker.
Channel by channel
The biggest scam channel. Real HMRC calls exist, but a caller who pressures, threatens arrest, or wants payment on the call is not HMRC. The settling move is always the same: hang up, find the number yourself on GOV.UK, call back through the front door.
Some genuine HMRC campaigns do text, and GOV.UK's text-message list names them, including the sender codes they use. A text asking for bank details, passwords or payment through a link is not one of them.
Refund-bait is the classic: "you are owed £X, click to claim". Refunds are claimed through your own HMRC online account, signed into directly, never through an email's link. Match anything else against GOV.UK's genuine-emails list.
Scammers copy real letterheads well, so looks settle nothing. What settles a letter: it matches a campaign on GOV.UK's letters list, the phone number on it matches the number GOV.UK publishes, and your own HMRC online account shows the same matter.
Report it, and pass this page on
Whatever it was, report it through GOV.UK: Report scam HMRC messages, calls and social media accounts. Know someone getting these messages? Send them this page; the link carries nothing personal.
Quick answers
Yes, and scammers phone far more. A real HMRC call never threatens arrest within hours and never asks for gift cards or transfers to personal accounts. Hang up, find HMRC's number yourself on GOV.UK, and call back through the front door; a genuine matter survives that detour.
Some real HMRC contact does arrive by text, and GOV.UK lists exactly which campaigns text and what those texts do and do not contain. A real HMRC text never asks for bank details or passwords, and payment links in texts deserve maximum suspicion.
Match it against GOV.UK's list of genuine HMRC emails. Real HMRC emails do not ask for personal or payment information by reply. When in doubt, sign in to your own HMRC online account directly, never through the email's links, and see whether the same matter appears there.
Through HMRC's own reporting channels on GOV.UK, which cover suspicious emails, texts, calls and letters. Reporting is free and helps the next person; nothing needs forwarding to anyone else first.
What a scam check can honestly say
The strongest result any scam check can give, Tax Letters' included, is "no obvious scam indicators identified". A letter cannot be authenticated from its wording or from an image alone, because scammers copy real letters. The only authentication that counts is HMRC's own: the GOV.UK lists, the front-door phone route, and your official HMRC online account showing the same thing the letter says.
Tax Letters' letter checker flags the classic scam signs in anything you paste and identifies which campaign the wording matches. It reports scam indicators or their absence; it never pronounces a letter authentic.