Wise up to tax scams

Scammers have targeted taxpayers, so you need to stay alert to their tricks, writes Anthony Keane

SCAMMERS are stepping up their attacks on taxpayers by pretending to be Australian Taxation Office staff, but security specialists say you can still spot their sophisticated tricks.

The Australian Taxation Office says that in the first six months of this year it received reports of almost 29,000 ATO impersonation scams.

Scammers will often demand payments for false debts, or offer false refunds if you give them your personal details, and their activity is expected to intensify in the next few weeks.

An ATO spokeswoman said scammers were active around tax time because many people were thinking about lodging their return and receiving a refund.

“If you receive communications from the ATO to say you have a refund available, but that you need to update your personal information or pay money before receiving the refund, then it is more than likely a scam,” she said.

People could check if they had a legitimate refund by contacting their tax agent, checking their myGov account for any messages, or calling the ATO directly to verify the correspondence letter mail on 1800 008 540.

Telephone scammers are using official ATO numbers and projecting them on to their caller IDs to trick people.

“This impersonation method is called spoofing and is used in an effort to legitimise their scam call. While we do make thousands of outbound calls to the community every day, our calls do not project numbers on caller ID,” the ATO spokeswoman said.

Sophos cybersecurity specialist David Sykes said people should always think about scams whenever they received an unsolicited call or email.

“Assume it’s a fake until they prove otherwise. It’s a bit sad, but unfortunately it’s the best defence,” he said.

Mr Sykes said the ATO would never ask for your tax file number or bank details via SMS or email, and people should beware of fake myGov notifications when online. “If you are unsure about the legitimacy of a myGov notification you have received, go directly to the myGov homepage and check your inbox for messages. “If the notification in question is not there, contact the ATO immediately,” he said.

Consumer group Choice said “exchange rates are where banks really kill you on overseas money transfers” and said the best interest rates and fees were offered by online money transfer businesses including OFX, World First, CurrencyFair and TransferWise.

Research by Mozo found that Australians could save hundreds of dollars by avoiding the big banks.

“The banks have had a monopoly on the market for a long time, so they haven’t needed to be competitive. But the fact is they don’t have a monopoly any longer,” Mozo director Kirsty Lamont said.

“We found that online money transfer providers are on average 5c cheaper per dollar transferred than the big four banks. When you’re transferring thousands of dollars, that difference adds up.”

Ms Lamont said people considering foreign currency transfers should always check the exchange rate, look beyond the big four banks and look out for extra fees or commissions.

“The money transfer market has clocked up strong growth in recent years, which can largely be attributed to globalisation and …people moving to foreign countries for work or study.”

World First managing director Ray Ridgeway said the triple-whammy of costs paid by some people was unnecessary.

“Banks say the receiving fee is out of their hands and they allow the receiving bank overseas to charge you $US25 or 25 euros,” he said.

Mr Ridgeway said Australians were losing an average $705 on amounts of $20,000 when using a major bank.