As 10m people in the UK prepare to complete their tax returns online by the end of January, many are already falling victim to scams and 40% have received phishing emails that claim to be from HM Revenue & Customs, according to new research from the digital authentication experts at MIRACL.

A survey of the attitudes of 1,000 British consumers about their personal online security revealed that one-fifth of them, or their close friends or families, had been the victim of data theft or identity fraud.

Despite this, many in the UK seem to have no idea how dangerous this kind of data theft can be. Of those who have filled in a tax return online, almost half (48%) were not at all worried about the possibility of inadvertently divulging their personal and financial information.

In addition, when asked which online activity made them most nervous about such information being stolen, the majority were most worried about shopping online (51%), with just over a third most concerned about online banking (36%) and only 14% most concerned about using online government services, such as applying for a driving licence or filling in a tax return.