How to spot fake emails and texts
Fake and fradulent emails and texts may look like they are sent by one of the seven agencies of the Danish Customs and Tax Administration (Skatteforvaltningen). We recommend that you only click on links in emails and texts when you are sure that the sender is legitimate.
We automatically refund overpaid tax to your NemKonto and you don't have to give us your credit card details.
We never state specific amounts in emails or text messages.
We never aks for your bank or payment information.
On this page you can see examples of fake email and text messages from senders pretending to be "Skattestyrelsen", "Skat.dk" and "SKAT", but they are fake.
You should also be on guard if you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) or the Customs and Tax Administration (Skatteforvaltningen). Please read more below.
Check the purpose of the email
Read carefully what the purpose of the email is. We will only write to you to give you information and options.
We would never ask for:
- Your personal data
- Your bank account or payment card details
- An amount
If in doubt, never click on a link in an email. Delete suspicious looking emails.
Be careful with your card details
Do not state your payment card details in an email.
If you entered your card details by mistake we recommend that you contact your bank. You should also check that money is not withdrawn from your account without your approval.
The Danish Tax Agency automatically refunds any overpaid tax to your NemKonto and you do not have to state your payment card details to get the refund.
Check sender of email
Most email programs will show you the sender email address when you click on the name of the sender. Here you will see the full email address of the sender of the email.
However, you can never be completely sure as the sender email address can easily be faked and therefore look like an official address from the Danish Customs and Tax Administration.
You should never click on links if you are unsure whether an email is from us. Instead, you should open up a browser, go to www.skat.dk and continue from there. You can write us a message and see your tax information on our website.
We have listed our various websites below.
Check that links are secure
To ensure that a link is secure, mouse over the link to see which website it links to. Only click the link if it links to one of the following website or email addresses:
| Website address/domain | Agency |
|---|---|
|
www.skat.dk |
Guides and self-service solutions for all agencies |
|
www.sktst.dk |
Danish Tax Agency |
|
www.toldst.dk |
Danish Customs Agency |
|
www.vurdst.dk |
Danish Property Assessment Agency |
|
www.gaeldst.dk |
Danish Debt Collection Agency |
|
www.motorst.dk |
Danish Motor Vehicle Agency |
|
www.ufst.dk |
IT and Development Agency |
|
www.adst.dk |
Administration and Services Agency |
You should never click on links if you are unsure whether an email is from us. Instead, you should open up a browser, go to www.skat.dk/english and continue from there. You can write us a message and see your tax information on our website.
Check the purpose of the text
Read carefully what the purpose of the text is. We only write to you to give you information and options.
We would never write an actual amount you either owe us or we owe you.
Likewise, we would never ask for your bank account or credit card details or ask you to state an amount.
If in doubt, never click on a link in a text. Delete suspicious looking texts.
Only click the link if it has one of the following website or email addresses:
| Website address/domain | Agency |
|---|---|
|
www.skat.dk |
Guides and self-service solutions for all agencies |
|
www.sktst.dk |
Danish Tax Agency |
|
www.toldst.dk |
Danish Customs Agency |
|
www.vurdst.dk |
Danish Property Assessment Agency |
|
www.gaeldst.dk |
Danish Debt Collection Agency |
|
www.motorst.dk |
Danish Motor Vehicle Agency |
|
www.ufst.dk |
IT and Development Agency |
|
www.adst.dk |
Administration and Services Agency |
You should never click on links if you are unsure whether a text is from us. Instead, you should open up a browser, go to www.skat.dk/english and continue from there. You can write us a message and see your tax information on our website.
Be careful with your card details
Do not state your payment card details in a text.
If you entered your card details by mistake we recommend that you contact your bank. You should also check that no money is withdrawn from your bank account without your approval.
The Danish Tax Agency automatically repays any overpaid tax to your NemKonto and you do not have to state your payment card details to get the refund.
A number of taxpayers have received phone calls from people pretending to work for the Danish Customs and Tax Administration.
These people tell the taxpayer that he/she is entitled to a refund of overpaid tax. All the taxpayer has to do is to give the scam caller his/her bank account and MitID details in order to receive the refund. These calls are not made by an employee with the Tax Agency, but by criminals.
The criminals often make sure that the number they are calling from is very similar to that of the Danish Customs and Tax Administration. In this way, it looks like the taxpayer is receiveing a call from the Customs and Tax Administration, even though it is a call from a criminal.
The purpose is to trick the taxpayers into handing over information which is necessary to steal money from the taxpayer's bank accounts.
We always refund any overpaid tax to the taxpayers’ Nemkonto. If you receive a phone call from someone asking for information in order to refund overpaid tax to you, you can be sure it is a fake call. We do call taxpayers from time to time, but we never ask for account details or MitID information.
Please make sure that you never give anyone your bank account or MitID details.
A number of taxpayers and businesses have received different kinds of fake texts all appearing to be sent by one of our seven agencies. Below, you can see examples of some of these fake texts.
As not all fake texts look the same, these are just examples of how they could look. In other words, you may have received a fake text that looked different to the below examples.
Example of fake text from June 2022
How do you know that the text is fake?
- It says that the sender is Skat.dk.
- We never state the actual amount you are entitled to.
- The link is not the official domain name of the Tax Agency.
Example of fake text from January 2022
How do you know that the text is fake?
- It says that the sender is SKAT.
- The link is not the official domain name of the Tax Agency.
A number of taxpayers and businesses have received different kinds of fake emails all appearing to be sent by one of our seven agencies. Below, you can see examples of some of these fake text messages.
As all fake emails do not look the same, these are just examples of how they could look. In other words, you may have received a fake email that looked different to the below examples.
Example of fake email from September 2022:
How do you know that the email is fake?
- We never state the actual amount you are entitled to.
- We never ask for your bank information. We refund overpaid tax to your NemKonto.
- Wrong name of recipient. We will use your name and not write "Dear client" or such.
- The link does not take your to skat.dk or other authorities under the Danish Customs and Tax Administration. Check the link "behind" the link in the actual email by mousing over the link to see which website it will lead you to (do NOT click on the link).
Example of fake email from February 2022:
How do you know that the email is fake?
- Some wording and sentences are incorrect.
- There are spelling mistakes and/or other mistakes, including space between letters in a word.
- We never state the actual amount you are entitled to.
- Wrong name and/or email address of the sender.
- Wrong name of recipient. We will use your name.
- The link does not take your to skat.dk or other authorities under the Danish Customs and Tax Administration. Check the link "behind" the link in the actual email by mousing over the link to see which website it will lead you to. We will never aks you to to "Klik her" (Click here) in a link.
Most fake emails and texts try to make you click a link to a website where the sender wants you to enter various information. The website may look very much like skat.dk but if you check the address you will see that it is not skat.dk.
If you are uncertain about the legitimacy of links you receive by email or texts, you should nok click on them. Instead, you should open up a browser, go to www.skat.dk/english and continue from there. You can write us a message and see your tax information on our website.
How do you know that the website is fake?
- The wording is not quite correct grammatically.
- It contains several spelling errors or typing mistakes such as space between letters in words
- The wrong sender in the address field.
We encourage you to send us a screenshot of any fake emails or text messages you receive. That way, you will help us break the cycle.
You can send screenshots via our social media pages on Facebook or Twitter, or via E-tax (TastSelv).
There are several examples that individuals and businesses were exposed to fraud where the sender calls himself "SKTST/SKattekontoen" or "SKAT Skattekonto" and sends you a MobilePay request.
We do NOT send payment requests by MobilePay. If you receive such a request, you should not accept it but report it to the police.
Example of a fake MobilePay payment request "SKTST/Skattekontoen", September 2022:
Read more in Danish about Safety on the Internet (borger.dk)
Read more in Danish about Safe use of phones and smart phones (borger.dk)