# How to spot a fake call from the Australian Taxation Office



## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

*How to spot a fake call from the Australian Taxation Office:*

The ATO makes thousands of outbound calls to taxpayers each week, but there are key differences between a call from a scammer and a legitimate call from the ATO.

The ATO will not:

* be abusive or offensive to you

* threaten you with immediate arrest

* ask you to transfer money into an account with a BSB that is not 092009 or 093003

* request payment via unusual methods such as iTunes gift cards or other prepaid cards

* request personal security information such as your TFN or your bank details via email or SMS or social media sites

* ask you for money up front in order to receive a refund or other payment

* direct you to download files from the internet.

The ATO will:

* provide you with a range of options for paying debts, which are all set out on our website at ato.gov.au/howtopay

* contact you by phone

* if you are in doubt about the authenticity of a call claiming to be from the ATO, you can call us on 1800 008 540 to verify

* you will generally be aware of any debt before it is due for payment, but you can check through your myGov account, your tax agent or by calling the ATO

* send emails and SMS asking to you to take specific action such as: provide additional information required to process a BAS or tax return lodge

* provide additional information required regarding an application that's been made

* verify changes to an account

* send general notifications and reminders via SMS or email

* send promotional and informational SMS and emails.

Source: ATO

(http://www.smh.com.au/comment/ato-fake-calls-the-scam-that-keeps-on-giving-20170915-gyidju.html)


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

.
Do people actually take calls from the ATO?
Talk about living dangerously 
.


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## UberDriverAU (Nov 4, 2015)

I can't believe people fall for this stuff Jack!


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## Thing (Oct 7, 2016)

I received an email from the ATO the other day. It was directed to me using the period I began ubering until the last payment I received from them, also the $$$ amount I earned during this period.

This paragraph shocked me though.

*If you don't meet your obligations *
If you don't apply for an ABN and register for GST for your ride-sourcing enterprise, *we can register you*. We can backdate the registration to the date of your first ride-sourcing payment. We may also charge you penalties and interest. You will need to lodge and pay all outstanding tax obligations.

They will register you anyway  My issue being that I was previously registered with an ABN & GST but deactivated them back in January, still they are sending these annoying _"Your ridesourcing tax obligations'_ letters 

So I rang them up & the CSO amended my file to reflect that I don't do it anymore.. Hopefully I don't get anymore of these crappy letters..


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## everythingsuber (Sep 29, 2015)

About 10 years ago I received a fake call from from someone claiming to be from the ATO.
Very authoritive sounding, he was Chinese and very convincing. I understand completely how people can be fooled. I hung up and called my accountant asking what was going on and he laughed said it was commonplace but had me fooled.


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## Kain93 (Feb 15, 2017)

The ATO will call you, i use to work for them... there is a indian bloke there i use to sit next to and every time he made outbound calls people would just hangup on him because they thought he was a indian scammer lol


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