{
  "id": 8002972,
  "title": "Fake SARS e-mails get smarter this tax season",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/fake-sars-e-mails-get-smarter-this-tax-season",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-17T09:57:10.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ITWeb",
    "slug": "itweb",
    "url": "https://www.itweb.co.za/article/fake-sars-e-mails-get-smarter-this-tax-season/xA9PO7NE2dlvo4J8"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As the tax filing deadline approaches, South African fraudsters are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to craft increasingly convincing phishing emails and counterfeit South African Revenue Service (SARS) websites. According to Kaspersky, researchers have identified phishing websites mimicking SARS eFiling, as well as malicious email attachments disguised as tax-related documents in anticipation of the October 23 deadline for non-provisional individual taxpayers. This follows a surge of SMS and email scams claiming recipients are owed refunds and directing them to fraudulent websites.\n\nOne example of a fake SARS communication surfaced as a phishing scam offering a R48,900 refund, which SARS confirmed was indeed a deception intended to impersonate the tax authority. Kaspersky warns that AI is making fraudulent correspondence harder to detect, as professional-looking messages are becoming more difficult to identify as fraudulent. Traditional red flags, such as poor wording and amateurish correspondence, are no longer reliable indicators of legitimacy.\n\nMoreover, there is an additional AI-related risk during tax season. Taxpayers may utilize AI-based chatbots and other tools for assistance in understanding returns or tax-related queries, but Kaspersky cautions that uploading tax records, identity documents, banking information, or other confidential data to such services could expose sensitive personal and financial information. Tax returns contain an extensive picture of an individual's financial and personal life, and taxpayer should exercise caution when sharing this data with AI services, advises Chris Norton, general manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Kaspersky.\n\nTax professionals, including Mark Walker, T4i director and former MD of IDC South Africa, caution that AI amplifies the threat from both the taxpayer and SARS perspectives. With AI, taxpayers receive highly personalized and professionally-branded communications purportedly from SARS, connecting to a \"tax assistant or advisor\" to help complete returns. These messages are convincing and can easily trap unaware or rushed taxpayers into potential harm.\n\nSouth African Institute of Taxation CEO Professor Keith Engel emphasizes the critical role tax professionals must play as SARS modernizes its administration. Tax professionals must maintain professional competence, ethical conduct, and a strong understanding of the evolving tax environment to build confidence in the tax system.",
  "summary": "With the tax deadline just over a month away, fraudsters use AI to make phishing scams targeting SARS taxpayers more convincing.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}