IN TODAY’S day and age it is unfortunate that we have to keep an eye out for people who try to find ways to steal our hard earned money, and these scammers are finding ways to make their scams more believable.
Two recent scams that have been making the rounds are a call for concern, with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and NBN Co warning locals that scammers are impersonating their organisations.
New information has been published recently on the NBN Co website to help residents understand how to identify and avoid scammers posing as the company. The advice follows an 84 percent overall increase in enquiries about suspected scams made to the wholesaler’s contact centre since October 2018, with approximately 24 percent of those calls originating from residents in Victoria.
Head of NBN local for Victoria and Tasmania, Ebony Aitkin said, “We urge residents and businesses to be vigilant of callers claiming to be from NBN Co requesting personal or financial information.
“We will never make unsolicited calls or door knock to sell broadband services to the public.
“We will never request remote access to a resident’s computer and we will never make unsolicited requests for payment or financial information.
“Protect yourself by verifying who are you are talking to. If in doubt, hang up and call your retail service provider customer service centre to check if the call is legitimate.”
ATO assistant commissioner, Gavin Siebert said that scammers have adopted ‘robocall’ technology to target taxpayers across the country.
“Scammers are sending pre-recorded messages in record numbers and are manipulating caller identification so that your phone displays a legitimate ATO phone number despite coming from an overseas scammer,” Gavin said.
“Our calls do not show a number on caller ID nor do we use pre-recorded messages.”
The ATO has received 40,225 reports of impersonation scams so far in 2019 with just over $1M in losses.
“Taxpayers should be wary of any unexpected phone call, text message or email claiming to be from the tax office. While we may contact you in these ways, if it doesn’t seem right, independently find our phone number and check if the contact was legitimate. If you receive a pre-recorded message claiming to be from us either hang up or simply delete the voicemail,” Gavin said.
For more information on these scams, visit www.nbn.com.au/scamadvice or ato.gov.au/scams
