Tax Refund Email Scam

Scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Scams are crafted to be seemingly coming from the authorities. I received the following notice today issued by the Australian Taxation Office:

'An email fraudulently claiming to be from the Tax Office is currently circulating. The email claims to offer a tax refund and asks people for personal and credit card details.

It is similar to previous scams and uses the Tax Office logo and the words 'Notification — Please read’ or ‘Australian Taxation Office – Please Read This’ in the subject line. There may also be more variations to these subject headings. The email asks people to click on a link which redirects them to a bogus website that looks similar to the Tax Office website and asks for credit card and personal details.

The Tax Office will never send people an email asking them to provide personal information including credit card details. Acting Second Commissioner Bill Gibson said anyone who receives the email should delete it immediately. “People should be wary of unsolicited emails claiming to be from the Tax Office. “As an extra precaution we recommend you type internet addresses directly into your internet browser rather than clicking on hyperlinks embedded in emails,” Mr Gibson said. If people have entered their credit card information on the website, they should report it to their credit card provider as soon as possible.'

I have been conned once on Ebay, many years ago. Paypal was not as popular then and the seller did not accept credit cards so I paid by directly depositing into his bank account. I let off my guard and it was a big mistake. After a month of waiting and silence from the seller, I knew I had been scammed of my hard-earned cash.

Have you ever been scammed?

A couple of readings on how to be scam-smarter

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