Spot the Fake · daily · no. 1
How scam-proof are you?
Ten messages. Real HMRC, or a scam? You find out at the end.
The same ten for everyone today. One go.
Last reviewed 12 October 2026 · How Tax Letters checks its facts
- day streak
- 0
- best score
- 0
- 10messages
- 1go a day
- 0hints
Swipe a message right if it is real, left if it is a scam, or use the buttons. No answers until the end, and no going back.
Message 1 of 10
Arrow keys work too.
Marking your answers
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Your score
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Send it to the group chat and see who would have fallen for it.
Ranks. 0 to 4 Easy mark · 5 to 7 Switched on · 8 to 9 Hard to fool · 10 Scam-proof.
The answers
One by one, with the tell and where it comes from.
How the fakes are kept harmless: their web and email addresses were not registered by anyone when the game was written, and are never links; their phone numbers are ones Ofcom reserves for TV and radio drama; and their National Insurance numbers start QQ, the prefix GOV.UK uses in its own example.
Real messages are rebuilt from GOV.UK's lists of HMRC contact, using the phone numbers, letter codes and references it publishes. Fakes are built from GOV.UK's guidance on scams. Nothing in a fake can reach a real person or website. No item is an original message. Each day draws ten of the 81 messages in the pool; the same ten, in the same order, for everyone on a given day. Your score and streak stay in this browser.
The tells, in full: scam letters · scam emails · scam calls · scam texts · the scam check