The 2025 Income Tax Campaign starts this April 8 with a clear warning from the Tax Agency given the surge in fraud attempts that use its image to capture passwords, bank details, and personal information. The warnings focus on fake emails and SMS messages that simulate official communications about refunds, approved reimbursements, or alleged tax incidents.
The Tax Agency maintains an active specific section for phishing notices in which it collects real examples detected in the latest campaigns. In those messages, cybercriminals pretend to come from the AEAT and try to lead the victim to fraudulent pages that imitate the official site.
Messages about returns and blocked files
The most common formula is email phishing and its SMS variant, known as smishing. The scam usually presents itself as a pending refund, an important notification, or a problem with the file. From there, the message incorporates an external link that directs to a site that appears to be official and where credentials, personal data, or banking information are requested.
The AEAT has also warned about emails with links to fake forms and messages that urge to make a payment through fraudulent documents. Among the most repeated examples are SMS about alleged IRPF refunds and emails with subjects like "approved tax refund", designed to give an appearance of urgency and verisimilitude.
Signs to detect impersonation
The Tax Agency itself reminds that these impersonation attempts arrive by email or SMS and refer to external links that should not be opened. The agency maintains a repository with examples of detected campaigns to facilitate their identification and help distinguish a real communication from a fraudulent one.
Among the warning signs are the alarmist tone, the promise of immediate returns, references to urgent incidents, and the use of domains external to the official environment of the Tax Agency. INCIBE has detected campaigns that take advantage of the start of the tax declaration to redirect users to fake pages that copy the image of the electronic headquarters.
How to verify a communication
The recommendation is never to access processing through links received by email or SMS. Verification must be done through official channels, manually typing the address in the browser or using the official application of the Tax Agency. INCIBE advises distrusting any unsolicited message that demands quick action or entering sensitive data.
The Tax Agency only calls by phone in relation to the campaign if the taxpayer has previously requested an appointment. In those cases, it uses the number 810 520 052. In case of any doubt, verification must be carried out exclusively through the official channels of the AEAT to avoid falling for an impersonation in the middle of the income tax campaign.