Fake SARS Emails and SMS Scams Are Surging in 2025 — Here's How to Protect Your Business

Fake SARS Emails and SMS Scams Are Costing South African Businesses Real Money

Criminals are impersonating the South African Revenue Service — and they are getting better at it. With the 2025 personal and corporate tax season approaching, fraudsters are sending convincing fake SARS emails and SMS messages designed to trick business owners, sole traders, and individual taxpayers into handing over money or sensitive banking details. If you or anyone in your business pays a fraudulent SARS demand, that money is almost certainly gone. SARS will not reimburse you, and you will still owe the legitimate tax debt.

This is not a new problem, but the volume and sophistication of these fake SARS emails and SMS scams spike every year as tax deadlines approach. South African SME owners, bookkeepers, and accountants are prime targets because they handle large transactions and often act quickly on what looks like an official notice.

What These Fake SARS Scams Actually Look Like

The messages vary, but the pattern is consistent. You receive an email or SMS that appears to come from SARS — often using official-looking logos, reference numbers, and language that mirrors genuine SARS correspondence. The message typically claims one of the following: that you owe an urgent outstanding amount and must pay immediately to avoid legal action, that you are entitled to a tax refund and must click a link to claim it, or that your eFiling profile has been compromised and you must verify your details urgently.

The urgency is deliberate. Fraudsters know that a business owner who receives a message threatening sheriff action or account suspension is likely to act fast and think later. That panic is the mechanism the scam depends on.

Some messages direct you to websites that are near-perfect copies of the SARS eFiling portal. Others ask you to make an EFT payment directly into a bank account the fraudsters control. Some install malware when you click a link, giving criminals access to your business banking credentials over time — a threat that can be even more damaging than a single fraudulent payment.

Who Is Most at Risk During Tax Season

Any South African taxpayer can be targeted, but certain groups face elevated risk during the 2025 tax season. Small business owners and sole proprietors are frequently targeted because they often manage their own tax affairs without dedicated finance staff who might catch inconsistencies. Companies that use third-party bookkeepers or accountants are also vulnerable — scammers sometimes target employees rather than the business owner directly, knowing that a junior staff member may not question an urgent instruction that appears to come from SARS.

Provisional taxpayers face two filing periods per year — the February and August deadlines — which means there are multiple pressure points scammers can exploit. Businesses that have recently registered for VAT or changed their banking details with SARS are also frequently targeted, as fraudsters monitor public business registration data where possible.

The bottom line is that any business receiving SARS correspondence — which is virtually every registered company in South Africa — is a potential target.

How to Tell a Real SARS Communication From a Fake One

SARS has published clear guidance on how it communicates with taxpayers, and understanding this guidance is your first line of defence.

SARS will never ask you to make a payment directly to a bank account via an email or SMS link. All legitimate payments to SARS are made through eFiling, at a SARS branch, or via your bank's official SARS payment option. If a message directs you to an account number and asks you to transfer funds immediately, treat it as fraudulent.

SARS does send emails and SMSes, but these communications will never ask you to confirm your banking details, password, or personal information by clicking a link. Genuine SARS emails will direct you to log into eFiling directly — by typing www.sarsefiling.co.za into your browser yourself, not by clicking a link in the message.

Check the sender's email address carefully. SARS uses @sars.gov.za addresses. Any variation — such as @sars.co.za, @sars-gov.za, or any other domain — is fraudulent. SMS messages from SARS typically arrive from a shortcode, not a standard cell number. If you receive an SMS from what looks like a private number claiming to be SARS, do not engage.

When in doubt, log into your eFiling profile directly and check your notifications there. If SARS has issued you a notice, it will appear in your profile. If it does not appear there, the communication you received is not from SARS.

The Real Compliance Risk Hidden Inside These Scams

There is a compliance dimension to these scams that goes beyond losing money to criminals. Business owners who fall for fake SARS demands sometimes fail to pay their actual, legitimate tax obligations — believing they have already settled the debt. This means they accumulate penalties and interest on genuine outstanding amounts while simultaneously losing money to fraud.

SARS charges interest on overdue tax at the prescribed rate, and late payment penalties apply from the first day after the deadline. For VAT vendors, a 10% penalty applies to late payments. Corporate income tax late payment attracts similar penalties. If your business is under audit or has outstanding returns, SARS can also withhold refunds — meaning a scam that causes you to miss a real deadline can have cascading consequences for your cash flow.

The other risk is data. If you enter your eFiling credentials into a fraudulent site, criminals gain access to your tax profile. They can change your banking details so that legitimate SARS refunds are paid to the fraudster's account rather than yours. SARS processes billions of rands in refunds annually, and this type of banking detail fraud is an established and growing problem.

What Your Business Must Do Right Now

The steps below are specific and non-negotiable if you want to protect your business during the 2025 tax season.

First, brief every person in your business who handles finances or corresponds with SARS. This includes bookkeepers, accountants, and any staff member who has access to eFiling. Make it a standing rule: no payment is made to SARS without verification through the official eFiling portal, and no login credentials are entered anywhere except www.sarsefiling.co.za typed directly into a browser.

Second, enable two-factor authentication on your eFiling profile immediately. SARS supports this, and it significantly reduces the risk of unauthorised access even if your credentials are compromised. Log into eFiling, navigate to your profile settings, and activate it today.

Third, verify your banking details on eFiling are correct. If a fraudster has already accessed your profile, one of the first things they do is change the refund banking details. Log in and confirm your details are accurate before any refund period.

Fourth, report any suspicious SARS communication to SARS directly. Forward fake emails to phishing@sars.gov.za. Report fraudulent SMS messages to the same address, including the sender's number. Reporting helps SARS track and disrupt these operations.

Fifth, make sure your actual SARS compliance is current. Businesses with outstanding returns or unpaid liabilities are more likely to panic when they receive an aggressive-sounding demand — legitimate or otherwise. Knowing that your affairs are in order removes the anxiety that scammers exploit.

What Legitimate SARS Non-Compliance Actually Costs

While scammers are the immediate threat, it is worth being clear about what genuine SARS non-compliance costs, because confusion between the two can cause business owners to dismiss real notices as fake.

Late submission of your income tax return attracts an administrative penalty of between R250 and R16,000 per month, depending on your taxable income. These penalties accumulate monthly until the return is submitted. VAT late payment penalties are 10% of the outstanding amount, applied immediately. PAYE non-compliance carries penalties of 10% plus interest. In serious cases, SARS can pursue criminal prosecution, attach assets, and issue a civil judgment against your business — all of which affect your ability to trade and access credit.

A business that confuses a scam with a real notice — or dismisses a real notice as a scam — can find itself months behind on filings with penalties compounding. The best defence against both threats is to keep your compliance status clean and verifiable at all times.

Check Your Compliance Status Before Tax Season Hits

The clearest way to know whether a SARS demand is legitimate or fraudulent is to have a complete, current picture of your compliance standing before any communication arrives. If you know exactly what you owe, what returns are outstanding, and what your eFiling status shows, you cannot be panicked by a fake message — because you already know the facts.

Run a free compliance check on ClearComply to see where your business stands on SARS obligations, company registrations, and other regulatory requirements right now. It takes minutes and gives you a clear baseline before the 2025 tax season reaches peak pressure.

You can also read our related guide on keeping your SARS eFiling profile secure and compliant year-round for a deeper walkthrough of the steps every South African SME should have in place.

Scammers count on confusion and urgency. Remove both by knowing exactly where your business stands — and acting only through verified, official channels.