A Portland woman has been scammed more than $5000 in two separate transactions with fraudsters over the phone.
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The phone-based scammers who claim to be from the Australian Tax Office have been making repeated calls to people in the district.
A 52-year-old Portland woman was contacted on Monday, May 1 and told she had a tax debt of $3986.
After paying an initial amount, Lithgow Police said she was contacted a second time and asked to make a second payment of $1700, which she did.
She then made contact with the police to report $5400 in total had been transferred.
While police endeavour to trace money paid in these cases, it is notoriously difficult to recover sums sent to scammers.
Warning on ATO fraud
SCAMwatch has been warning about these kinds of scams since 2015.
They are particularly prevalent in the lead up to tax time.
How they work:
- People identify themselves as coming from a government agency
- They will provide a return phone number and ask you to return the call in office hours. This number has no connection to the ATO.
- They will often have a detailed story about the reason for the debt.
- They ask for money to be sent via wire transfer as it is almost impossible to recover money sent this way.
- They may ask for people’s financial details and use the information to commit further scams.
What to do?
SCAMwatch recommends:
- Hang up
- If in doubt, contact the ATO or other government agency directly using numbers you source independently in the phone book or online. Do not use the contact numbers given.
- Do not send money. You will never be able to recover it. If you give the scammer your personal information, it may be used for further fraud.
- Never send any money via wire transfer to anyone you do not know or trust.
- Never give your personal, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and the phone number came from a trusted source. If you think you have provided your account details to a scammer, contact your bank or financial institution immediately.