Early super release scheme frozen on fraud fears

The tax office has temporarily halted applications for early access to super after a tax agent was hacked and savers’ money stolen.

Federal police fear up to 150 people have lost $120,000 due to identity theft.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed “an element of fraud” surrounding various welfare schemes is behind a decision to pause the government’s early access to super scheme.

More than 1.2 million Australians have applied to the Australian Taxation Office to withdraw up to $10,000 from their superannuation funds this year as part of the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.

However the ATO on Friday temporarily stopped accepting applications after the Australian Federal Police revealed that up to 150 people have lost $120,000 due to identity theft, after a tax agent had personal details of customers stolen by an online hacker.

Mr Dutton told Sky News on Friday that the AFP and other Commonwealth agencies like Austrac are investigating the matter.

“They are looking at an instance where there has been one tax agent that has been the subject of a hacking or cyber attack, and personal details of clients that are part of that business, they have been exploited,” Mr Dutton said.

“There’s been no cyber intrusion within the superannuation funds or within the ATO.”

Mr Dutton said the pausing of the scheme was “prudent” and did not indicate there was an ongoing threat to anyone’s superannuation.

“The AFP have really ramped up their engagement to make sure we can come down very heavily on those who would seek to rip off the funds of other taxpayers,” he said.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said Australians could still apply to the ATO to access their superannuation early, with the processing of applications paused only for Friday only “out of an abundance of caution”.

“So we’re investigating those (breaches), and as part of that process for today only, so today the ATO will pause requests for early superannuation being sent to super funds,” Mr Sukkar told Sky News.

“Just for today - so they’ll resume on Monday, because we want the ATO today, out of an abundance of caution, to make sure that there’s nothing more we can do to help people protecting their data, to ensure that people are not the victims of identity theft.”

With AAP