Beware of Scammers

Phone scams are the number one type of scam in Australia. Scammers can impersonate ATO employees to obtain personal information for financial gain from you. Generally, phone scams demand payment for an unexpected debt or offer an unexpected refund.

It is important you are aware that scammers try to collect personal information to steal your identity, including:

• tax file numbers;
• names;
• addresses;
• dates of birth;
• myGov user name and password;
• bank account and credit card details; and
• drivers licence, Medicare and passport details.

This information is then used or sold to other criminals to commit identity fraud. This can happen immediately or even months or years later.

Phone scammers are likely to be pushy or aggressive. They may tell you that there is a warrant out for your arrest or offer to send a taxi to take you to a post office so that they can make a payment.

The ATO would never threaten jail or arrest and does not email, call or SMS asking for credit card or bank details to issue a refund.

Scammers use a number of tools to slip under your radar at tax time – from impersonating an ATO representative, to creating official looking emails and email addresses, to creating sleek and professional-looking websites that mirror the ATO site. They have even been known to create web portals that appear to be hosted on the ATO site, which are designed to trick you into providing your personal details.

Beware – scammers may even recite some personal information about you to trick you into thinking they’re the real deal. These days, it’s easy for scammers to get a hold of personal information from social media and other networking forums.

Scamwatch and the ATO are urging consumers and small businesses to be aware of scammers taking advantage of the busy nature of tax time to target you. You can check whether they’re the real deal by calling the ATO on its official contact number: 13 28 61.

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