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Warnings have been given to the public about scammers pretending to be from HMRC to con people out of their cash.

The deadline for tax renewal credits is July 31 and fraudsters are currently trying to take advantage while HMRC sends out renewal packs.

Consumer magazine Which? says some of its readers have received three automated phone calls, supposedly from HMRC.

The first claims that legal action will be taken legal action against you for not paying tax, then tells you to press 1 to speak to someone.

The public is being warned about scammers pretending to be from HMRC.

A second message pretends an HMRC letter has been sent to you, but returned and, again, you “urgently” need to press 1 to speak to an official. A third call says HMRC has to access your account, then asks recipients to answer security questions.

The Government strongly advises anyone receiving such calls to hang up and report the call through the Government’s website.

Scam emails are also being sent, informing recipients that their profile or password is due to expire. These are sent from Japanese email addresses and use HMRC branding to appear genuine. One states that recipients have only 24 hours to act.

Which? says: “These emails include phishing links, which lead to malicious sites impersonating the tax office.”

Suspicious emails should be forwarded to the HMRC phishing team at [email protected]. You can also select “report spam” on Gmail, “report phishing” on Hotmail or forward scam emails to [email protected] if you have a Yahoo account.

Suspicious text messages should be forwarded to 60599. Text messages will be charged at your network rate. HMRC will never send notifications of a tax rebate, or ask you to disclose personal or payment information by text.

Report suspicious websites to the National Cyber Security Centre.

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Yet another scam is postal. Anyone unsure about a letter should log into their tax account, or call HMRC – using the number on its website, not the number on the letter. Scam letters can be reported by contacting the HMRC team the letter says it’s from; for example debt management.

You can also check HMRC’s list of recent letters. Tax credits can be renewed for free online or via the HMRC app.

Warnings over 'HMRC' scam as tax credit deadline approaches