Credit: ATO
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has issued a warning over the rise of tax scams in Australia as another financial year draws to a close.
The federal body said it had identified and taken action against 595 websites impersonating its online services in the last 12 months.
According to the ATO, the fake sites are designed to steal passwords, personal information and identity documents, such as passports and driver licences.
In addition, Australians are being increasingly hit by email and text scams purporting to be from the ATO and requesting personal details such as bank details, passwords and usernames.
“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of SMS and email scams leading to fake myGov sign-in pages – we’ve had more than 360 of these scams reported since April 2022,” said Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh. “However, we see many different types of tax and super scams happening year-round, not just in the lead up to tax time.”
Although older consumers are regarded as being most susceptible to scams, the ATO claimed younger Australians have fallen victim to the most tax scams in the last three years.
In 2021, people aged 25 to 34 reported the most amount of money lost to…
