Malvern businessman says beware of VAT scam letters from Germany

David French, owner of Centreshot Archery Supplies at Fruitlands, Malvern Wells, says that the letter, sent out from Hamburg in Germany, should just be thrown in the rubbish bin.

He said: "The letter tells you that you have to provide them with your VAT registration number and they make it sound that it's something you're obliged to do for something called the UK Corporate Portal.

"But it's just a scam. In the small print on the back, it says they will charge you nearly £800 a year for three years to publish the number in a publication.

"If you fill it in and send it off, you then get sent a bill followed by threats to take you to a European court if you don't pay up.

"Someone running a small business might send it back without really reading it properly, and be sent the bills, but you don't have to pay. Just bin the letters." said Mr French.

The letters is headed Publication of Companies and VAT Registration Numbers in the UK Corporate Portal 2015 and purports to come from TW Tele Verzeichnis Verlag GmBH of Hamburg, but Mr French said he has seen similar letters before.

"It was a few years ago, and then it was from Spain, not Germany, but it's still a con," he said. "You don't have to send in your VAT number to be published in some kind of European list. Most companies have them listed on their own web sites."

Evlambios Christophi, spokesman for Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and internet crime, said: "If anyone gets letters like this, they should never reply, partly because if you do, you could find yourself on a fraudster's list and run the increased risk of getting more scam letters and spam.

"Secondly, we would urge anyone who gets such a letter to report it to us. We'll pass it on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau which assesses all fraud reports and sends out warnings."

Scam letters can be reported on the website actionfraud.police.uk.