A wave of fraudulent emails purporting to be from the Australian Government are in circulation currently, reportedly concerning Tax Refunds and the end of financial year.
Businesses and individuals are warned to not click on any links in the emails, which may contain a subject such as ‘Australian Tax Refund Agency’ and identify the sender as from “refund@ato.gov.au” <refund@ato.gov.au>. Criminals are using social engineering tricks to trick you into providing personal information as a pretext to receiving a tax refund. This personal information can be used by the criminals to steal your identity.
The subject of the email may contain wording the same as, or similar to:
Australian Taxation Office
Australian Tax Refund Agency
Australian Taxation Office (backcharge)
The from line of the email may contain wording the same as, or similar to:
“refund@ato.gov.au” <refund@ato.gov.au>
“TAXE” <service@ato.gov.com.au>
“Australian Taxation Office” <support@ato.gov.au>
“support@ato.gov.au” <support@ato.gov.au>
This is a scam.
The emails may include links to web sites that attempt to trick you into supplying personal details.
Providing the information requested is likely to mean that your personal and/or business information may be accessed for fraudulent or illegal purposes.
What we recommend you do
If you receive an email similar to this one, do not reply or click on the links in the email.
If you have provided personal information that includes your credit card or bank account information in response to an email request regarding this matter, the information you supplied has been captured by a criminal. Please notify your bank and the Australian Taxation Office.
Where you can find more information
Further information about detecting and preventing being fooled by phishing attacks is here:
