FOUR people have contacted Donnybrook police in the last week after being targeted by fraudsters carrying out an aggressive tax phone scam.
The scam involves fraudsters posing as Australian Taxation Office (ATO) employees who attempt to force people to pay a fake tax debt by threatening arrest if they don’t comply.
Victims of the scam in WA have reported losing more than $157,000, with Consumer Protection receiving 866 enquiries about the scam.
“I am concerned that the increasingly threatening nature of the scam calls is intimidating many in our community, including Seniors, with the urgent demands forcing victims to respond and lose their money to these heartless and ruthless criminals,” Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll said.
“The tax phone scam has been around for many years but I am disturbed that the scammers have now heightened their threatening tactics to coerce victims into transferring money to pay fictitious tax bills or get fictitious refunds or rebates.
“The most recent tactic has been hostile threats of court action, an arrest warrant or even prison for tax evasion unless money is paid as soon as possible. The money is usually asked to be sent by either bank transfer to an account likely to be opened with a stolen identity or belonging to a money mule, Load & Go card or by wire transfer services such as Western Union or Moneygram.
“It’s important to remember that the ATO will never ask for funds in this aggressive manner.
“This is the time of year when you may think a call from the ATO about your tax return is not unusual. Don’t be tricked into transferring money for any reason. If in doubt, contact the ATO independently to verify if the call was genuine, but don’t use any contact numbers or email addresses provided by the caller,” she said.
Consumer Protection advice:
The ATO makes thousands of outbound calls to taxpayers every week, but would never contact you about a debt in this threatening manner. Nor would the ATO demand that you load money onto a prepay card at the post office or ask you to send funds via wire transfer services.
Generally the ATO would send an SMS and or letter to remind you that a payment was due. If they don’t get a response from this, they would then call to discuss payment of the outstanding debt.
There are three simple steps you can take if you have any concerns or suspicions:
Confirm the caller’s name and title and why they are calling.
Call the ATO switchboard on 13 28 69 and ask to be put through to the person who just called you.
Most importantly, never send money or give financial details to someone you don’t know or trust.
The ATO has further information on its website: https://www.ato.gov.au/Media-centre/Media-releases/Protect-yourself-against-phone-scams/
For further information on scams visit www.scamnet.wa.gov.au or enquiries can be made by emailingwascamnet@commerce.wa.gov.au or calling 1300 30 40 54.
