An ongoing scam has reemerged ahead of tax time, and the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission has warned tax-paying Australians not to fall for it.
Text messages from scammers impersonating myGov and the ATO are claiming that the tax return of the recipient has been “automatically processed” but details will need to be updated before the money can be deposited.
A link in the text message will take recipients to an online form which will prompt them to update personal details, including credit card information, which the real ATO said it would “never ask for”.
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“Watch out for messages appearing to be from myGov claiming your tax return has been processed,” ACCC Scamwatch tweeted on Friday.
“These are scam messages. Ignore, delete, and block. Report all scams to Scamwatch”
The scams are not new, the ATO last year said it was: “Concerned about a high volume of SMS scams pretending to be from the ATO.”
“These scams tell you that you’re owed an income tax repayment and ask you to click a hyperlink and complete a form.
“Clicking the link takes you to a fake ATO webpage that asks for your personal identifying information, including your credit card details.
“If you receive an SMS like this, don’t click on any links.
“The real ATO will never send you an SMS with a link to log in to our online services. We’ll also never ask for your credit card details.”
It comes a year after the ATO highlighted another tax time email scam, in which the impersonation attempt appeared to confirm the receipt of tax return lodgement, and attached a document for the recipient to complete “to-do list details”.
However, the attachment would then take recipients of the email to a fake Microsoft login page designed to steal login details.
Once those details were secured, scammers gained the ability to reset passwords for other accounts, including those used for banking and online shopping.
While the real ATO might ask you to get in contact, it will never send you a hyperlink to submit sensitive information or request details through these channels.
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