ATO issues urgent phone scam warning

The ATO has issued an urgent warning not to answer this phone call after it resulted in 321 Aussies losing $1 million.

More than 300 Australians have been scammed out of $1 million since the start of the year by a record number of scam phone calls impersonating the tax man.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued an urgent warning about the overseas scam calls, which manipulate caller identification to appear as if they are coming from a real ATO phone number.

Scammers have adopted “robocall” technology to send prerecorded messages demanding payment of a tax debt and threatening immediate arrest.

If the recipient answers the phone, at the end of the message they will get an option to speak to a human, who will attempt to keep the caller on the line until payment is made and may become rude or aggressive.

“I think scammers are trying different techniques,” ATO assistant commissioner Gavin Siebert said.

“This particular technique is called caller ID spoofing. What we are seeing is people will get a missed call, they’ll call us back and it goes through to an ATO officer, which almost legitimises the scammer,”

The ATO has received 40,225 reports of impersonation scams since January, compared with about 30,000 reports at tax time last year. The calls have fooled 321 people, who have collectively paid about $1 million to scammers.

“It is quite an increase for that period alone,” Mr Siebert said. “We really want to get out there and warn people.”

Mr Siebert said the ATO would never threaten taxpayers with an immediate arrest warrant and doesn’t demand immediate payment, especially through “unusual methods” like bitcoin, gift cards and vouchers.

While the ATO does sometimes contact taxpayers by phone, its calls do not show a number ID.

“If taxpayers get one of these calls they should hang up or delete the message,” he said.

“If they do have concerns they can call us on our scam hotline [phone]. They also need to be careful to understand their tax position and guard their personal financial information.”

SCAM CALL WARNING SIGNS

• The ATO will never send you an email or SMS asking you to click on a link directing you to a login page

• It won’t use aggressive or rude behaviour, or threaten you with immediate arrest, jail or deportation

• It will never request payment of a debt via iTunes or Google Play cards, prepaid Visa cards, cryptocurrency or direct credit to a personal bank account.

• Nor will it request a fee in order to release a refund owed to you.

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM SCAMMERS

• Know your tax affairs — you can log into myGov to check your tax affairs at any time, or you can contact your tax agent or the ATO

• Guard your personal and financial information — be careful when clicking on links, downloading files or opening attachments. Only give your personal information to people you trust, and try not to share it on social media

• If you are unsure about whether a call, text message or email is genuine, don’t reply. Call the ATO on 1800 008 540 to verify

• Know legitimate ways to make payments — scammers may use threatening tactics to trick their victims into paying false debts via prepaid gift cards or by sending money to non-ATO bank accounts. To check that a payment method is legitimate, visit ato.gov.au/howtopay

• Talk to your family and friends about scams — if you or someone you know has fallen victim to a tax-related scam, call the ATO as soon as you can.

Source: ATO