Scammers have Aussie taxpayers in their sights at tax time this year, according to warnings from financial services minister Stephen Jones.
By the end of last financial year, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had received more than 20,000 reports of scam attempts targeting people lodging their tax returns. This year they’ve already received 19,843 reports – with that number expected to rise.
The most commonly reported tax scams are impersonation scams, where criminals impersonate ATO employees to trick unsuspecting victims into providing personal information through links to a fake myGov login page.
“Ahead of tax time, we are warning the community about the common tricks of tax scammers use which include posing as the ATO on social media and offer to help you with your tax and super questions,” Mr Jones, who is also assistant treasurer, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, they’re only looking to help themselves to your personal information.”
Around tax time, beware of scammers trying to lure you in with an offer of a refund. They usually impersonate the ATO to get your attention and then alert you to ‘money’ that’s waiting for you in an account.
But before they grant you access to this money, the ‘ATO officer’ will request personal information or even payment from you.
They will attempt to contact you through all methods including phone calls, direct messages, email or text. Be aware they will try to engage you in conversation for as long as possible in order to collect as much information as they can.
The ATO is reminding taxpayers that it will never send you a link to login to their online service or ask you to provide personal information via social media, email or SMS.
If you receive a call like this, but want to make sure it wasn’t actually from the ATO, call the ATO’s scam reporting line on 1800 008 540 to verify.
If you receive text communications purporting to be from the ATO, contact the ATO separately to confirm.
If the ATO confirms it hasn’t contacted you, delete the correspondence and block any accounts on social media.
The government is encouraging anybody on the receiving end of a scam attempt such as this to inform the ATO at ReportScams@ato.gov.au or report the issue to Scamwatch, Australia’s scam watchdog.
Have you ever received a suspicious call or text? Do you think you could spot a scammer before it’s too late? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: Most common scams and what to do about them
I had a ‘call’ from 0498 862 524 purporting to be from the ‘Federal Taxation Department’. I hung up immediately, as I know that there’s no such department and the accent was American, so I knew it was a ‘scam’ call.