ATO email scam
Another scam email that landed in my inbox claimed to be from the Australian Taxation Office.
Purporting to be from the email address refund@ato.com.au it said I was entitled to a $250 refund on my Visa or Mastercard.
I knew it was fraudulent immediately, of course. The ATO doesn’t have my Yahoo! address, doesn’t communicate by unsolicited email and doesn’t give refunds on credit cards.
Also, I had seen a media release from the Tax Office on a different but related scam.
The Tax Office is warning people to be wary of a fraudulent email being circulated that claims to offer a 30% discount on their taxes. The email uses the Tax Office logo and the words ‘Cut Off Taxes Program (COTP) has been released – Join Now’ in the subject heading …
The subject heading in my email was “Message from the Australian Government”.
This article in The Age suggests the dodgy ATO emails are now common.
The scam ATO email, which promises a $250 bonus on top of a tax return, links the taxpayer to an online form that asks for personal details including ATM pin, credit card details and tax file number. Instead of submitting the form online, the website asks for a printed version to be mailed to an address.
While on one hand these scams are getting more sophisticated, they might suck more people in if they employed someone who speaks English.
My email asked me to complete the “formular”.
Russian romance
I’ve been propositioned by a Russian woman, or at least someone claiming to be Russian.
“Olesya” sent me an email claiming to have discovered my details “in a site of acquaintances”. Google is very good at screening spam, but this one seems to have slipped through.
Olesya’s email address was (random=made up by me) pw”random”@auto-industrial.pt, hardly personal. (more…)
Israeli art scam
The Kalgoorlie Miner this morning exposed a scam in which foreigners are selling “original” artworks door to door.
Young people, believed to be Israeli or Iraqi (odd mix), claim to be art students earning a living.
I’ve personally had two different sellers knock on my door in the past six months. (more…)
Million dollar home page scam
I first read about the Million Dollar Home Page on Hamarana in September. A 21-year-old student sold a million pixels for one dollar each.
Hamarana commented it was a great idea, but not one that could or should be replicated.
It seems many wannabes don’t share that view. Search google for the topic and see what I mean.
Opportunists and scam artists have jumped on the concept in spam proportions. The original is worth praising for its sheer ingenuity. The rest are vultures feeding on the carcase of an idea.
I’m not allowing comments on this because the experience elsewhere has been that such blog entries attract the vultures.
