Tax season 2026 opened on 1 July, so we are focusing on one important thing: how to outwit the fraudsters who impersonate SARS to try and relieve you of your precious financial resources.
To wise up before this happens, let’s use counterfeit bank note training as a springboard.
Do you know how counterfeit spotters were trained, back in the day?
You might think that they pored over every counterfeit bank note that had ever been confiscated. Squinted over tiny imperfections. Obsessed about possible colour variations.
You would be wrong.
The powers-that-be knew that trying to memorise every flaw would be overwhelming. It would also be pointless, because the counterfeiters would always be coming up with new options, too.
Instead, the authorities just exposed their sleuths to “the real thing”.
Day after day, only genuine currency notes crossed the counterfeit-catchers’ desks, until the unique properties of those bank notes were as familiar to them as their own faces, staring back out of the bathroom mirror each morning.
They knew the patterns of each note, how its ink smelled, the printing ridges on the paper and how that special paper squeaked when they rubbed it between their finger and thumb.
And knowing all the ins-and-outs of the real thing meant that when they were faced with a fake, they recognised it instinctively.
So, let’s take a look at a real SARS text message:
Here it is:
As you can see, the overriding tone of this message is simply informative.
- There’s no urgent action to take.
- They don’t mention the bank by name.
- There are no links to click on (although to be fair, your phone may highlight the taxpayer ID number as if it is indeed a phone number you could dial).
Informative and link-free: that’s what you should expect from a real SARS text.
It should almost feel a little boring. 😉
No matter what the supposed purpose of a message is, as soon as it contains a clickable hyperlink, asks you to confirm bank details or requires you to make an urgent payment to a particular bank account, you know it’s a scam.
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