'We can see where you are': How a school principal got consumed by ATO scammers

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School principal Michelle Wilson spent a stressful two hours on the phone, convinced she owed $8,000 and could soon be arrested if she didn't pay up. Then she realised the whole thing was an elaborate hoax.

But they also acknowledged there had been a significant rise in calls to Australia, after India and Canada worked together to shut down call centres targeting Canadians in October last year.

But Ms Foat said the ATO had recently referred the issue to the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce to investigate. "You only need to have a look at the amount of people that were affected by this last year and the amount of money."After making the partial payment of $1,500 to the scammers, Ms Wilson walked into her accountant's office.The next day, she could not believe that she — a professional woman used to running a school — had been fooled by the scammers."Was that a nightmare?

It is a tactic known as"spoofing", which the ATO identified as a serious issue it was trying to address by having thousands of calls blocked. The scammers warn the recipient they have to pay a fake tax debt or face arrest, deportation or the freezing of assets, just as they did to Ms Wilson. "Intelligence indicates the client discloses the name of their agent to the scammer rather than the scammer proactively holding this."

 

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