SARS warned on 28 July 2026 about a scam wave sent by SMS and email that claimed recipients were owed tax refunds and directed them to fraudulent websites.
The messages are effective because they combine three things that naturally attract attention: money, authority and urgency.
SARS also warned that scammers are using AI to create professional-looking email templates, making some fraudulent messages harder to identify through spelling mistakes or obvious formatting errors alone.
That changes an old piece of phishing advice.
Poor spelling is still a warning sign, but good spelling is not proof that a message is genuine.
The safer approach is to verify the message independently. If you receive a tax notification, do not use the link supplied in the message. Instead, access SARS through a trusted route that you already know is legitimate.
Look carefully at the actual domain name before entering credentials or personal information. A page can copy a government logo, colour scheme and layout while still being controlled by a criminal.
SARS's warning also reinforces a broader lesson for 2026: AI is making fraudulent communications easier to produce at scale.
The defence is therefore shifting from “Does this message look professional?” to “Can I independently verify the request?”
That is a much stronger security habit.