HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has stopped thousands of scam text messages involving things like fake tax rebates since April.
According to HMRC, 90 per cent of the most convincing texts are now halted before they reach consumers' phones.
The tax office started a pilot with public and private partners last April to combat fake messages, using new technology which identifies fraud texts and stops them from being delivered.
Since the pilot began, there has been a 90 per cent reduction in customer reports about the spoofing of these HMRC-related tags on SMS and a five-fold reduction in malicious SMS reports, HMRC reported.
Its initiative has helped reduce reports of the scams from more than 5,000 in March 2017, before the new programme was introduced, to fewer than 1,000 in December 2017, the tax office added.
Similar progress has been made in tackling fraudulent emails and websites.
In the past 12 months, HMRC has initiated the removal of 16,000 malicious websites.
By introducing technical controls, HMRC has also stopped customers receiving more than 300 million emails purporting to come from the tax authority.
Angela MacDonald, director of customer services at HMRC, said: "HMRC is focused on becoming the most digitally advanced tax authority in the world, and a big part of that relates to keeping our customers safe from online scammers.
"As email and website scams become less effective, fraudsters are increasingly turning to text messages to con taxpayers. But as these numbers show, we won't rest until these criminals are out of avenues to exploit."
She said reports of SMS-type of fraud had quickly increased in volume over the last few years with people now being nine times more likely to fall for text message scams than other forms like email.
This is because they can appear more legitimate, with many texts displaying 'HMRC' as the sender, rather than a phone number.
The messages entail fraudsters alleging to be from HMRC, who invite people claim a tax rebate via links to websites that then harvest their personal information or spread malware.
This can in turn lead to identity fraud and the theft of people's personal savings, HMRC reported.
The tax office added it would never contact customers who are due a tax refund by text message or by email.
HMRC's milestone comes during Take Five To Stop Fraud Week, when the tax authority is working to raise awareness of the tell-tale signs of fraud ahead of the self assessment deadline.
Ms MacDonald said: "We have made significant progress in cutting down these types of crime, but one of the most effective ways to tackle it is still to help the public spot the tell-tale signs of fraud.
"HMRC is working with the National Cyber Security Centre to further this work and extend the benefits beyond HMRC customers."
carmen.reichman@ft.com
