The South African Revenue Service would like to warn taxpayers to watch out for criminals claiming to be employees of the SARS who telephone taxpayers or send out SMS's asking for their personal details. These criminals will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law when they are caught.
These criminals, claiming to be from the SARS call centre, call or send SMS's out to taxpayers, and ask taxpayers to return their calls. Usually, they give out the following number (083 913 8253) and ask the targeted taxpayer to call a Mrs Allison Fourie. However, when the taxpayer calls the number, he or she is met with an answering machine which asks the caller to hold and then cuts off after 11 minutes.
The public must be wary of calls or SMS's from people claiming to be from the SARS. They must telephone us immediately if they receive these. SARS call centres are staffed by well-trained people and taxpayers must report calls allegedly from the SARS if whoever makes the call cannot identify himself or herself properly.
The SARS is committed to employing men and women of integrity and to running a clean administration. The organisation also has a zero-tolerance policy towards all forms of corruption and will not hesitate to act firmly against anyone found to have been involved in crime, be they employees of the SARS or members of the public.
We urge the public to call our fraud hotline at 0800 002870, our KwaZulu-Natal call centre at 031 328 6000 or the Western Cape call centre at 0860 12 12 18 for advice or to report any suspicious telephone calls or SMS's.
ISSUED BY THE COMMISSIONER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVENUE SERVICE
PRETORIA