The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Deputy Chair Delia Rickard estimates about $2 million has been shelled out so far this year by unwitting victims to scammers claiming to be from the ATO.
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The ATO scam – where some one calls claiming to be from the ATO and that you owe them money – usually has a huge spike in calls from scammers at the end of the tax year.
The Scamwatch website records there was a fourfold increase in the money lost in the ATO scam, known as upfront and advanced fee fraud, at the end of this financial year. The 2017 figures for June, show consumers lost nearly $1.4 million ($1,399,334) in fraud scams, which is almost four times the 2017 monthly average the scammers are bagging in cash.
Last month innocent tax payers were conned into giving $283,213 over to fraudsters – which has been around the usual 2017 monthly average.