August 26 to 30 is the National Anti-Scams Centre’s Scams Awareness Week. This year’s theme is ‘Share a story, stop a scam’.
This annual reminder is a perfect opportunity to check how ‘scam aware’ you and your clients are.
Since January, nearly 80% of all scams reported to us are related to emails. A common scam is an email notifying a small business owner that their ATO account has been suspended. This email looks legitimate to them, so they follow the instructions to click on the link and ‘update their details’ to reactivate their account. They submit their details and within minutes have unknowingly given scammers their business account information. This information can now be used to commit identity theft and tax refund fraud under the business name.
While scams are becoming more sophisticated, there are ways to quickly spot a fake ATO email.
- Look out for messages containing a link that ask you to log in to a government service such as myGov. We recently removed all hyperlinks in unsolicited, outbound SMS, so if you’ve received a message that appears to be from the ATO but contains a link, it’s a scam.
- Be careful of emails requesting personal or financial information, especially if they claim to be urgent or time sensitive. We never ask for passwords, account numbers, or other sensitive data via email, SMS or unsolicited phone calls.
- Be wary of downloading attachments or opening email links. They can infect your computer with malware and lead to your business information being stolen and used to commit fraud.
- Watch out for unusual transactions or interactions on your accounts. If you’re unsure whether contact from the ATO is genuine, don’t engage with it, and verify it. You can also check our scam alerts.
Many people who encounter an ATO scam never report it. When a scam is reported to us, we use the provided information to alert the community, so others can avoid these scams themselves. We also ensure any fraudulent or impersonator websites are taken down, which protects the community from scammers.
If you see a suspicious email claiming to be from us, send it to reportscams@ato.gov.au.
For more information, visit ato.gov.au/scams.