Don’t reply to this text: Urgent warning is issued over tax office scam offering thousands of dollars in refunds
- Text message pretends to be from the ATO, directs to a rebate scam website
- Police say to immediately delete the text message without clicking the link
- If you have clicked the link accidentally, you need to report it
- Australians are projected to lose more than $532 million by the end of this year
A text message offering a healthy tax refund at the click of a web link is a dangerous fake, police have warned.
The victim gets a text message saying they are about to receive an Australian Tax Office (ATO) direct refund of $2675.51.
It encourages you to click on a link to www.ato.direct and log in with a PIN number included in the text and your mobile phone number.
If you get this text message above: delete it. It’s a fake message pretending to be from the ATO that sends you to the fake website pictured below, which is designed to trick you and steal data
Anyone who entered their details in this fraudulent website is encouraged to report it to the Australian Cyber Security Centre or to identity protection charity idcare.org
The website is not the real ATO website, which is www.ato.gov.au
All Australian government website URLs end with .gov.au
If the victim clicks on the link, they will be taken to a website that encourages you to put in your mobile number and the PIN sent in the text message.
The message on the official-looking website says the ATO has a new system of paying your tax refund, personalised to prevent a third-party from claiming it.
Scamwatch says Australians will lose more than $532 million by the end of this year surpassing half a billion for the first time
NSW Police said on their FaceBook page that if you receive this text message, delete it immediately without clicking the links.
If you have accidentally clicked on the link, report it to the Australian Cyber Security Centre website which is run by the spy agency Australian Signals Directorate.
If you have also provided your personal information/credentials, please consider reporting it to Scamwatch or to ID Care which is a charity set up to help people with data breaches and identity theft issues.
For information about your tax refund, contact the ATO on 13 28 65 for individuals and 13 72 26 for businesses.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch website, which notifies police about new scams, has just finished an awareness week with a series of videos with tips and tricks to teach the public how to spot a scam and to test awareness.
The tax refund scam is what is known as a ‘rebate scam’ that tricks you into giving away your data or bank account details by saying you are entitled to a rebate or reimbursement from the government, a bank or trusted organisation.
In a calculator on its website, Scamwatch shows 140 rebate scam reports were made in the most recent available month of July, and $6356 had been lost.
Australians are projected to lose more than $532 million by the end of this year over all scams, surpassing half a billion dollars for the first time, Scamwatch says on its website.