This is not the usual - you have a tax refund, click here! If anyone can help, I would be most grateful.
I need to verify that a letter & subsequent emails from a chap who says he works for the Anti Money Laundering Service Remote Compliance Team is genuine.
I have tried calling HMRC several times, with no success. Either the automated system (tell me, in a few words, why you're calling) doesn't understand me, or it puts me through to VAT (who can't redirect & couldn't find a number, even internally, for AML) or it says they're too busy & hangs up or keeps me hanging on for 20 mins, THEN hangs up!
I'm calling the number on the Anti Money Laundering page. I tried calling the 24/7 number to report suspicious activity but they're too busy to answer that too!
I am scheduled for a 9am phone call FROM this chap tomorrow (yes, I know, but I've had other priorities the last 2 weeks) but just wanted to be sure it's all legitimate. I'm, stressing as it is because they sent me 193 pages of legislation, most of which, surely doesn't apply as I'm 'only' a bookkeeper and I've explained I only process transactions, I do NOT advise, I do NOT deal with clients cash, I do NOT work for anyone I don't meet, I do NOT work for high-cash / overseas / or anyone I don't feel comfortable about and I insist they all have an accountant who surely is also registered & does the necessary compliance anyway?
Anyone else had a letter from Barry Stuart or any dealings with email [email protected]?
Thank you!
Replies (9)
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You advertise yourself as
and offer Your dependable and reliable fully outsourced Accounts Department
& the regulations apply to amongst other Professional Bookkeeping, Administration and Professional Services for Small Businesses
so the first thing to clarify is exactly what you do and whether the regulations apply to you. external accountants
Have a look here for gov.uk advice:-
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-accountancy-ser...
If time is limited I suggest you focus on Regs 18, 19, 21 (including 21(6)), 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37, 39, 40, and 5 & 6.
David
Are you actually already registered with HMRC then?
If the regulations apply to you then compliance isn't optional.
I had a MLR visit a number of years ago and the officer requested a copy of my MLR Policy and procedures and a copy of my current customers.
You need to have written MLR policies and procedures.
The question was about verifying the contact who was using [email protected].
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phishing-and-bogus-emails-hm-...
Suggested approach -
After checking that this is not a spoofed email address (hover over the sender name in chrome or copy/paste it into notepad to see the true email string), the question arises - surely this should have been "hmrc.gsi..gov.uk" rather than "hmrc.gov.uk" ? But it turns out that from March 2019 the "gsi" is being dropped from civil service departmental email addresses - https://civilservice.blog.gov.uk/2017/12/14/why-government-email-is-chan...
so one option to verify contact further would have been to send a separate email (not clicking reply but retyping the email address) to what appears to be a team mailbox (amis.rcedinburgh) and possibly - no gurantee!- getting a response from there