Cifas, the UK’s leading fraud prevention service, is warning UK taxpayers to be vigilant of scams as the 31 January deadline for self-assessment tax returns approaches. On top of scammers taking advantage of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic throughout 2020, HMRC received more than 846,000 reports of suspicious communications impersonating them in the 12 months leading up to November 2020. This includes over 300,000 suspicious phone calls – a 47% increase from the previous 12 month period.