Younger Australians are the group most likely to be duped by online scammers pretending to be ATO employees or officials.

Bucking a trend that usually sees older Australians bearing most of the financial burden of scams, CPA Australia senior business policy advisor Gavan Ord said those aged between 25 and 34 years old were the most likely fall for ATO scams.

“It can be hard for anyone to spot tax time scams and the fact that young, tech savvy Aussies are most likely to be the victim of ATO impersonation scammers should be a wake-up call to everyone,” Mr. Ord said.

Mr. Ord’s warning coincides with the start of the annual tax return season, when most Australians, regardless of age, welcome the modest financial relief that a refund can bring. He said that it was a season when they were particularly vulnerable to scams.

ATO scams turning to Facebook and X

ATO’s Assistant Commissioner of Cyber Governance, Joda Walters, said that online scammers were increasingly active on social media networks, creating fake accounts with branding elements resembling government agencies including ATO and myGov.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s National Anti-Scam Centre’s most recent report on scam activity found that while scam activity was increasing financial losses associated with it were decreasing.

Overall scam losses falling

Losses fell 13 per cent to $2.74 billion in 2023 compared to the previous year while scam reports increased 18.5 per cent to 601,000 over the same period.

Investment scams continued to be the most lucrative for scammers, accounting for $1.3bn of total losses, followed by remote computer access scams ($256 million), romance scams ($201m), phishing scams ($137.4m) and payment redirections ($91.6m).

The ACCC said that between October and December last year, telco providers reported intercepting 246.7 million scam calls and 106.7 million scam text messages.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is currently establishing a registry to block scammers attempting to use fake message headers in texts to spoof the names of popular government and bank organisations.

 Staying safe

CPA Australia says there are ways to spot scams if you have a keen eye:

• Look for any grammatical errors or unusual language in emails or SMS messages.
• The ATO has removed hyperlinks in unsolicited SMS messages to make it easier for people to spot real messages from the fake ones. If you see any links in an SMS or QR codes in a message claiming to be from the ATO, this will be a scam.
• When it comes to emails, check the sender’s address. Anything unusual is a red flag. If the address includes the acronym ATO or Australian Taxation Office in full, look for subtle anomalies like using a number, adding extra letters, or even removing a letter.
• Be wary of anyone making unexpected requests for personal or financial information, especially if they claim it’s urgent. The ATO will never ask for passwords, account numbers or other sensitive data by email or SMS.
• If you see a social media account claiming to be the ATO or myGov, look for the official logo and profile verification, such as the blue tick on Facebook and Instagram or grey tick on X.
• The ATO will never discuss your personal ATO account on any social media platform, including private messages. If this ever happens, block and report the account by taking a screenshot and sending it to reportscams@ato.gov.au
• If you’re still unsure, you should always verify if the contact is legitimate by contacting the ATO on 1-800-008-540 or by visiting the verify or report scam page on the official ATO website.