Phone Scams at Tax Time
It is important to remember that the ATO do not threaten jail or arrest and do not email, call or SMS asking for credit card or bank details to issue refunds.
Every year, scammers impersonating ATO (Australian Taxation Office) employees attempt to obtain personal information for financial gain from you. Generally, phone scammers demand payment for an unexpected debt or offer an unexpected refund or grant.
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 you can make a payment. There is even a recent scam where the “Tax Office employee” wanted to be paid with I-Tunes Cards.
Besides money, scammers will try to collect personal information to steal your identity, be wary if you are being asked for any of the following:
- tax file numbers
- names
- addresses
- dates of birth
- myGov user name and password
- bank account and credit card details
- drivers licence, Medicare and passport details.
The above information is used or sold to other criminals to commit identity fraud. This can happen immediately or even months or years later.
The ATO has up to date info on their website here on recent and common scams .
31/07/2018 by The Power2 Team