Tax Refund Scams Australia Review
The Australian consumer watchdog Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently issued a warning about a substantial rise in tax scams usually before the tax season. This comes on the heels of a warning issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) recently. To know more about it read our Tax Refund Scams Australia review, which follows.
Features of Tax Scams
Australian taxpayers have lost more than $ 8 million to these tax scammers last year. Victims are contacted by scammers pretending to be from the police or ATO (Australian Taxation Office). It can be through a robot voice, email, text message, or directly.
The scammers will ask for the following details (their language and tone are mostly aggressive, offensive, and abusive) your name, payment of outstanding tax debt, your tax file number, and money so they will send you a refund, and tell you to stay in contact with them while you go to bank, shop, or post office to make payment.
The scammers will threaten you with legal action or issue a warrant against you if you do not comply with what they say.
There is a chance may they behave exactly opposite also. They may offer you a tax refund which is a ploy or temptation. Many a time the scammer may offer you to withdraw your investments and invest in a scheme that will be more profitable and to act quickly before the offer ends.
Always check and examine these schemes with a person whom you trust or your registered tax agent.
How do the scammers contact you?
While studying the scams, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission noted that these scammers first call the victim over the phone and then send them an email or text.
Modulus Operendi of the Scammers
The scammers will tell their victims to pay their tax fines or debt by Google Pay, Vouchers, or purchasing gift cards like iTunes. They may also tell their victim to transfer money in an account to a bank state branch that is not of the Reserve Bank of Australia. They may also tell the victim to pay via other methods like cryptocurrencies which are not traceable or trackable.
How can you know if you are being scammed?
- Most scammers use software to disguise their true identity so that it looks like a legitimate phone call. If in case the number is displayed be sure it is not from ATO. ATO does not project their numbers using caller ID.
- If you are sure that there is no refund on you, be alert if you get any phone calls, emails, or text messages about tax refunds or debt.
- ATO does contact taxpayers by phone, email, text, or SMS, but they do not threaten people using aggressive or rude language. They do not use scary words like deportation, arrest, or jail term. They never request that the payment be made by cryptocurrency, iTunes card, pre-paid cards,
- ATO does not request a fee for the release of your refund. ATO does not even tell you to click on the link which is sent via email, which asks you to provide your financial, banking, or personal information.
- ATO will never tell you to install any software or download any file or attachment.
What to do if you receive a suspicious message regarding a tax refund?
If you ever get a scam call, message, or email for an unexpected tax refund simply hang up, delete the message, or delete the email. Do not open any email, click on unknown links, or open any attachments. In short, do not respond.
You can contact ATO on 1800 008 540 and verify the information you have received.
You can also file a free complaint with Report Scam at our website for fund recovery.
Our fraud/scam investigative team is there to guide and help you. Apart from tax scams we also recover funds for victims of cryptocurrency scams, forex trading scams, pension scams, fund recovery scams, investment scams, etc.
Also, read about the Investment scam.
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