Be careful to avoid common council tax and business rates scams which can end up losing you money.
Reporting scams
Inform the police via ActionFraud if you believe you've been exposed to cyber crime, fraud or online scams related to your council tax or business rates account.
If you're concerned someone is impersonating our staff or using the guise of City of York Council as part of any scam, contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline for Trading Standards.
Ensure to check the identification of anyone visiting your property and consider cold calling the person’s head office to confirm that they’re legitimate.
Fraudulent rating agents
In an effort to get your bank account details scammers might:
- say they’re from the council or Valuation Office Agency (VOA)
- tell you your property is in the wrong council tax band
- state that your business rates are incorrect
- telephone you claiming to be able to reduce your bill
- call at your door offering to provide a refund
- ask for payment to check your council tax band or business rates with the VOA
Check your Council Tax band or business rates valuation with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) for free, via GOV.UK.
Alternatively, make sure you appoint a reputable agent to make checks on your behalf.
Visit GOV.UK for more information on identifying fraudulent agents and avoiding council tax and business rate scams.
Direct Debit Indemnity fraud
The council is aware of a potential scam involving fraudsters contacting residents or advertising that they can help in reclaiming Council Tax payments made by Direct Debit.
The fraudster will often ask for your personal and bank account details and raise a false indemnity claim with your bank for the direct debit payments, often claiming that these payments were made in ‘error’. Once the claim has been processed by the bank, the refund, once deposited, will either be transferred fully to the fraudster or they will take part of the refund as a service fee.
Unfortunately, as this will have been a false claim, the resident is still liable for the council tax and will be left with a debt to the Council which will be subject to recovery action.
Making a false indemnity claim is a criminal offence and legal action can be taken against residents if they are involved, even if they do not make the claim themselves