Cyber criminals are poised to take advantage of tax time, with the government urging Australians to be alert to scams.
This comes as the Australian Taxation Office says it has already received 19,843 reports of scams in 2022-23, with impersonations of the organisation itself being the most common at tax time.
Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said scammers will target people at tax time by impersonating the ATO and promising tax refunds, and urged Australians to remain vigilant.
Australians have already lost more than $194 million to scams so far this year, according to Scamwatch data.
An unnamed case study provided by the government described how they received a text message that appeared to come from myGov.
It said their myGov profile had been placed on hold pending a review, and asked them to visit the site through an attached hyperlink.
“Earlier that day, I had only just spoken to a consultant from Centrelink to set up a profile for child support payments,” they said.
“It was late at night after I had completed a 12-hour shift. I just clicked on the link believing it was legitimate.”
By the time the scam victim realised that what looked like a legitimate myGov website was fraudulent, they had already signed in – giving the scammers their username and password.
“A couple of days later, I received a text message from the ATO stating there had been some amendments made to my MyGov account,” they said.
“I contacted the ATO, and it turns out [the scammers] had entered a fraudulent ATO tax refund of $15,000 to be paid to a different account.”
Scammers are experts at their craft
KnowBe4 security awareness advocate Jacqueline Jayne said hindsight can be 20-20, but scammers can be very skilled at appearing legitimate.
They also know how to target people’s emotions, particularly fear and joy.
“During that time of ‘I need to click here otherwise I could be arrested if I don’t pay my tax bill’ or ‘Excellent, I’ve got a refund, click here to get the details’, we tend not to pay attention,” Ms Jayne said.
“So awareness is the key: The more people that are aware of the red flags and the type of scams, then eventually it will move in the other direction.
“But … we’ll probably, as an Australian group, lose more this year than we did last year at this time.”
Australians lost more than $37 million to scams in June 2022, with phishing and false billing contributing to the majority of the reports.
“Last year I’d just written an article … talking about [annual recorded ATO phone call scam], and I got that phone call,” Ms Jayne said.
“Even though I 100 per cent knew it was a scam, I had a physical reaction – because I’m a human, and those words cause me naturally to respond.”
Cyber criminals are often looking to accumulate personal identifiable information (PII), such as birth dates and addresses, along with phone, tax file, Medicare, and passport numbers.
A decent amount of profile built from PII can then be sold, or used to commit identity fraud, which can be used to commit crimes like superannuation theft.
How to spot a tax scam
The most important thing to keep in mind is that the ATO will never send you a link to login to its online services, or ask you to send personal information via social media, email or SMS.
Ms Jayne said while this message is not as embedded in the Australian psyche as others, like the ‘Slip, Slop, Slap, Seek and Slide’ sunscreen campaign, it is crucial.
“We need to shift as a society to understand we all have a responsibility for cyber security,” she said.
“I use an analogy like driving a car; we have to look after our car, make sure we’re driving to the rules, pay attention to the road, the conditions … It’s the same with cyber security.”
If you are concerned after receiving a call, text or email from the ATO, you should look up its official phone number and call it to confirm that the correspondence was legitimate.
You should also report any suspicious contact claiming to be from the ATO to ReportScams@ato.gov.au and Scamwatch.
“When it comes to the ATO, they will never send you communication with a link. They will never send you communication with an attachment,” Ms Jayne said.
“They will never call you and say you owe us money, pay with this gift card – ever.”
