UK tax authority warns of fake social media posts

Viral video claiming Britain is tracking people's travel is disinformation, says HMRC

The false claims about people who frequently travel are 'designed to cause undue alarm', said the tax authority. PA

Claims in a social media video that the British government is tracking taxpayers who travel overseas more than three times a year have been rejected as a fake by the UK's tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs.

The video has been circulated widely in the Middle East, causing alarm among British nationals overseas and UK residents.

It claims that from August 4, a new branch of HMRC and the Home Office – called the Mobility Oversight Unit – will check whether a person’s employment status and tax record match their lifestyle.

This is part of an “enhanced customs monitoring” programme to tackle benefit fraud and tax evasion, the video and other related social media posts claim.

The disinformation video being widely shared on social media

HMRC said the information contained in the video was false. “This video is disinformation, designed to cause undue alarm and fear. Anyone wanting information on rules around taxation should go to gov.uk or seek advice from a tax professional,” an HMRC spokesperson said.

Many social media users commented under the video that the information was false, but that did not stop it being widely shared.

Fact-checking charity Full Fact traced the video back to a TikTok account, where the post had been shared more than 66,000 times and liked by 57,200 accounts.

The video claimed the information was first reported by The Guardian, but there was no evidence of this on the newspaper’s website.

Full Fact added that while there are existing restrictions on the length of travel for people claiming benefits, the system in described in the video does not exist.

"Posts which claim to speak on behalf of official sources often carry telltale signs that they aren't genuine. It's critical that everyone check their information before they share, using reliable sources such as the Full Fact toolkit that can help people spot the signs of misinformation," a spokesperson for the charity said.

The Home Office was contacted for comment.

British government departments are being targeted with misinformation. One widely shared post on social media says “the UK government is hiring” for a “Shariah law administrator”.

A separate post claimed “the role is for the Department of Work and Pensions” alongside a screenshot of a – now deleted – listing for Manchester Community Centre.

The job description says the successful candidate will “provide all admin and secretarial work for Manchester Shariah Council”.

In fact, the advert was not for a government job and the administrator was being hired using money a mosque said it had raised through donations.

The job was advertised on a portal run by the government, where private employers can post.

It is not known whether any of the posts are part of a hostile state-backed cyber campaign. UK government bodies have repeatedly warned of threats from online and phishing operations by actors in Russia and Iran.

Earlier this year the UK's National Cyber Security Centre exposed a cyber campaign by military unit 26165 of Russia’s GRU intelligence directorate against western logistics providers and technology companies that had been running since 2022.