Tax refund
I’ve banked the tax refund. After paying the rates and water bill there wasn’t much left.
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”.
Turnbull’s ‘courageous’ politics
Every time a politician does something stupid I’m reminded of the Yes Minister episode in which Sir Humphrey advises Jim Hacker the proposed course of action would be courageous.
Translated from bureaucratic language that means political death.
It’s very hard to fathom why Malcolm Turnbull wants to delay millions of Australians receiving a timely handout from the government through its economic stimulus package.
I concede a personal interest in this; my family stands to receive about $5000.
Putting that interest aside, I actually think the package has some merit. I was less convinced about the December handout, because of the timing and the lack of an overall strategy. (more…)
