“Hello. This call is from the investigation division of the Department of Home Affairs. There is a legal case filed under your name as your identity has been used for several illegal activities.”
“There is an arrest warrant issued under your name as well.”
An increasing number of Australians have received such telephone calls in recent weeks, with a pre-recorded robotic voice threatening the person receiving the call with dire consequences due to purported identity theft or unpaid taxes.
The receiver is often threatened with an “arrest warrant” as well.
Scam calls growing like never before in Australia
Though telephone scams are on the rise in Australia generally, such calls have seen a sharp increase in the lead-up to the ATO tax deadline on 31 October and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of all the frauds, this kind of scams take the lion’s share, with almost 96 per cent of cases reported to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission's Scamwatch.
Contrary to the stereotype, it’s not older people that are more exposed. Young people between 25 and 34 years of age are more susceptible to fall prey to the scammers.
During the month of September 2020, Australians have lost $5 million to COVID-19-related scams alone. The total amount of money lost to all scams reported to ACCC during September is $119 million.
However, Deputy chair of the commission Delia Rickard says the actual losses could be much higher.
“This is just a drop in the ocean of the frauds that haven’t been reported,” she told SBS Italian.
“September was the month with the biggest number of scams reports to the ACCC, ever.”
The September figures from ACCC's Scamwatch stand out when compared to $634 million that Australians lost in 2019.
When Italian national Simona received a pre-recorded call on her mobile phone, she fell for it and believed that her personal information had been used for illicit activities. She was told to call on a number.
I got scared, the first thing I thought was that someone stole my identity for crimes.
ACCC's Delia Rickard says scammers threaten people to make them react out of fear.
“Scammers aim to push people to react in panic, sometimes using personal data acquired in the dark web”, she says.
Luckily for Shimona, when she called on the number, it did not connect, and she got some time to think. She decided to call the Department of Home Affairs, and they confirmed that the threatening call she received was a scam.
But, she says, she kept getting similar calls from different numbers during the following days.
Ms Rickard says scammers often work in a network, with some of them pretending to be policemen or tax officer. This way, they present themselves in a hierarchy and give themselves a veneer of respectability, convincing the victims to pay after scaring them.
Le truffe telefoniche in AUstralia sono in aumento, settembre è stato il mese con il numero di denunce più alto di sempre . Source: Getty Images/artoleshko
ATO scams are the number one fraud
Alleged tax avoidance or evasion is the scammers’ favourite hook in today’s environment.
Davide started receiving such calls a few weeks ago.
He also got pre-recorded messages, but in his case, the message was recorded by a real person, in a very authoritative voice.
He was told that he was in trouble because of taxes from previous years.
When I picked up the phone, a pre-recorded voice talked to me in an authoritative, professional voice.
Davide says though he hung up, he says the tone of the caller was very convincing.
ATO scams have become the go-to fraud for swindlers. Scammers often use the help of an accomplice posing as an accountant to confirm to the potential prey the risk of arrest in case their request is not complied with.
Nel 2019 gli australiani hanno perso 619 milioni in truffe. Source: : AAP Image/Dave Thompson
Pre-recorded scams are not the only scams out there.
In executing a phone scam, a scammer may be actually interacting with the potential victim.
Italian migrant Elena works with people with disabilities in Byron Bay. She says many vulnerable people receive these calls.
She received similar calls from people who tried to force her to give her personal information.
The scammer used the classic unpaid taxes pitch and started being verbally aggressive and pushy, threatening her with arrest if she didn’t pay.
The man talking was very insistent and told me that he would have me arrested if I didn't pay up.
Elena said she firmly replied that she had recorded the conversation and that she would call the police. The caller sensed that Elena was not falling for the scam, but scammers manage to ensnare many others.
Are ethnic groups more exposed to scams?
The ACCC says there's no evidence that any specific ethnic communities in Australia are a particular target of scammers.
“They are sort of ‘equal opportunity scammers’, trying to get as many people as they can,” says Ms Rickard.
“Having said that, it is true that people without a permanent residency status are more vulnerable because they are so concerned about doing the right thing."
"In the past, we’ve seen frauds in which scammers pretended to be from Home Affairs and said that the victim had done something wrong and unless they pay up they will be deported."
"They are playing into people’s worst fears.”
In some circumstances, scammers go the extra mile to simulate a legitimate scenario.
Spanish migrant Florencia received a message a few weeks ago from someone claiming to be an officer from the Department of Home Affairs. The caller made some vague accusations and asked her to call on a number.
When Florencia called on that number, the background noises sounded as if the person answering her call was in a police station.
“There was a big production value in the scam,” Florencia told SBS Italian.
In recent months, the scammers’ effort has improved qualitatively and quantitatively.
The number of scams reported to Scamwatch increased 34 per cent in 2019 over the previous year, and have ballooned this year under the coronavirus pandemic, with one-third of all scams going unreported.
“Around 33 per cent of people who had lost money to scams in the previous five years did not report that loss to any organisation,” states the ACCC in its r.
What to do if you receive a suspicious call
“The best advice is not to panic,” Delia Rickard says.
"Even if the call sounds legitimate, the best way to deal with it is to hang up, search on the internet the number where the caller claimed to call from (ATO or Department of Home Affair) and give them a call."
"Almost inevitably the call will turn out to be a scam,” she says. “It happens so often to them that they have a dedicated helpline to help people to check on scams."
“First of all, remember that the ATO doesn’t call you out of the blue and threatens to arrest you,”
Listen to the SBS Italian report.
LISTEN TO
Truffe telefoniche in aumento, le storie degli italiani d'Australia
SBS Italian
13:40
