ATO Commissioner Warns about Tax Scams

Michael D'Ascenzo Tax Commissioner of Australian Tax Office, the national tax agency of Australia has urged citizens for remaining vigilant of tax-related frauds emerging at the time of tax payments on the Internet. Coolum-news.com.au published this on August 19, 2011.

ATO, short for Australian Tax Office, said that ordinary scams in its knowledge consisted of fraudulent e-mails that directed those victimized for giving away personal information or paying money for acquiring a tax re-imbursement via genuine appearing ATO Internet sites, clicking web-links within spoofed ATO e-mails, or completing forms within attachments implanted on genuine appearing ATO e-mails that frequently carried information-stealing virus.

Furthermore, the Tax Commissioner stated that it wasn't unnatural to have anyone get targeted with a scam, while at times such scams were crafted and executed with so much sophistication and ingenuity that despite being extremely alert and savvy, one could get trapped. Coolum-news.com.au reported this on August 19, 2011.

The Commissioner further stated that if scammers had people's private details they could grab their identity as well as carry out fraud against them that could potentially result in severe consequences like drainage of money from the victims' financial accounts.

Mr. D'Ascenzo outlined that ATO wouldn't ever dispatch e-mails requesting citizens for their credit card information or any other personal detail. Actually, a genuine tax office wouldn't at any time contact consumers regarding any re-imbursement in the said style. Hence, any e-mail asking for payment card or personal information prior to a re-imbursement could really be a hoax, the Official added.

In the meantime, to maintain additional defense, ATO advised the public to type in the tax office's URL straight into their Web-browsers instead of following web-links implanted on e-mails. There was all the information regarding the current type of scam or other similar frauds along with examples, which the ATO had been informed about within its website, the agency outlined.

Moreover, persons suspicious about any transaction could report ATO via calling at its hotline number as well as forward dubious uninvited e-mails supposedly from ATO at ReportEmailFraud@ato.gov.au for facilitating in catching the perpetrators of such scams, ATO concluded.

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» SPAMfighter News - 8/26/2011