Scots have been warned to be wary of criminals pretending to be from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Criminals have been emailing fake 'failed direct debit' alerts in an effort to steal personal and financial details.
It comes as 277,000 suspicious contact attempts were reported to the HMRC in the twelve months running up to April 2022.
Director general for customer service Myrtle Lloyd said: "We’re urging all of our customers to be really careful if they are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or bank details.
"There are a lot of scams out there where fraudsters are calling, texting or emailing customers claiming to be from HMRC.
"If you have any doubts, we suggest you don’t reply directly, and contact us straight away. Search GOV.UK for our ‘scams checklist’ and to find out ‘how to report tax scams’."
The added warning comes as 2.1 million tax credits customers are expected to renew their annual claims by July 2022.
Typical scams include phone calls threatening arrest if victims do not immediately pay fictitious tax owed.
Additionally, HMRC warned of emails and texts which offer spurious tax rebates, bogus COVID-19 grants or claiming that a direct debit payment has failed.
The vast majority of the scams reported back to the HMRC in the past 12 months were offering bogus tax rebates.
A total of 463 attempted scams since March 2020 were Covid-19 related, most attempting to defraud people through texts.
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