Scams: Be aware, protect yourself and act if you think you’ve been scammed!

Scams are a fact of life. In days gone by it might have been a door-to-door hawker of magic potions that one could see and taste, even if they may have been hair tonic disguised as the latest miracle cure!

Today scams are insidious, dangerous, frequently life changing and even life threatening. The emergence of the electronic age has created a huge playground for scammers (those who perpetrate scams). This is then complicated by the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, making it even harder for individuals to recognise scams.  What are scams?  Victoria Police has offered this definition:

“A scam, or confidence trick, is an attempt to intentionally mislead a person or persons usually with the goal of financial or other gain. Scams try to exploit human weaknesses, such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, and also virtues like honesty and compassion.”

Since we’re coming up to tax time, thinking about tax scams is important. It’s a time where you’re potentially expecting a refund and scammers know that people are expecting communication from the ATO. The following message from the ATO may help you know if a contact is legitimate:

“The real ATO won’t send you an email or SMS with a link to sign in to our online services. While we may use email or SMS to ask you to contact us, we will never send an unsolicited message asking you to return personal identifying information through these channels.”

A story about an ATO scam was published on the Scamwatch website in March 2024. Similar scams occur where scammers use the logos of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and send emails demanding fine payments etc.  Scamwatch provided the following practical guidance in their article:

“The Australian Tax Office (ATO), other government agencies and any legitimate business will never threaten you with arrest or demand immediate payment of a tax debt or fine with unusual payment methods like gift cards, Bitcoin or pre-paid credit cards. Hang up immediately even if you’re concerned that a call may be legitimate and call the ATO on 1800 008 540 to check. Never make payments or give out any of your personal details.”

The ATO website also has information about tax refund scams and shows you how to recognise them.

Text messages with links are frequently scams. Scams using WhatsApp are common where the sender mimics the type of message you may receive from family. In the ATO scam story above, the perpetrator used WhatsApp to send predatory demand messages.

Scamwatch is a great source of information about the latest scams, things to look out for and data in relation to scams. The best advice is:

·          STOP: don’t just react. Visit Scamwatch ways to spot and avoid scams. 

·          THINK: could this be fake? Read through the different types of scams.  

·          PROTECT: Act quickly. Learn what to do if you’ve been scammed.

The ACCC is building a National Anti-Scam Centre to build on the work of Scamwatch to make reporting scams easier and work with government, industry and law enforcement to better protect consumers and investigate scams.

You can report a scam on the Scamwatch website and find out where to get help.