Does your business know how to spot and report an ATO impersonation scam?

National Anti-Scams Centre’s (NASC) Scams Awareness Week (SAW) runs 26 to 30 August. This year’s theme is ‘Share a story, stop a scam’.

This annual reminder is a perfect opportunity to check how ‘scam aware’ your business is.

Since January, nearly 80% of all scams reported to us relate to emails. While scams are becoming more sophisticated, there are red flags you can share to help your employees quickly spot a fake email.

Remind your employees to:

• look out for messages containing a link that asks you to login to a government service such as myGov. The ATO recently removed all hyperlinks in unsolicited, outbound SMS, so if you’ve received a message from the ATO that contains a link, it’s a scam.
• be careful of requests for personal or financial information, especially if they claim to be urgent or time sensitive. We never ask for passwords, account numbers, or other sensitive data via email, SMS or unsolicited phone calls.
• be wary of downloading attachments or opening email links. They can infect your computer with malware and lead to your business’s information being stolen and used to commit fraud.
• watch out for unusual transactions or interactions on your accounts. If you’re unsure whether contact from the ATO is genuine, don’t engage with it and verify it. You can also look at our scam alerts.

Many people who have a scam experience never report it. By reporting and sharing your ATO scam experience with us, you’re helping others see the warning signs and avoid these scams themselves.

This Scams Awareness Week, let’s share our scam stories and empower others to do the same. The more we hear, the better equipped we are to prevent Australians from being scammed.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section. We will be happy to answer all your queries.