$7000 tax department phone scam

[OneOfOne]

One of the problems of working from home has been phone calls during the day that you would normally miss out on. Since being made redundant back in April, I have been keeping a mental note of how many calls from charities I have received through the day, the count is about 20 so far....and some of them won't take no for an answer. Even when you say you haven't worked for the last 3 months (I sort of have, but I consider myself "underemployed" with some weeks working just 4 hours).

Anyway, I digress....

I got a call yesterday from "the Australian taxation office" to say that I have qualified for a $7000 cheque from the government. Apparently the government is rewarding people for doing the right thing, paying taxes etc (as if!). They gave me a number to ring 03 9016 8968 and my personal id number of A379. I just have to ring this number and they will send my cheque out in the mail. Don't know why they don't just put it into my account, they have the details, or they also have my address, just post it to me :)

After hanging up I Googled "$7000 australian taxation" and came up with a number of hits, here is one that explains it:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/business/new-phone-scam-warning-ato/story-e6frez7r-1226077330979

So why does the government need to charge you $200 to send you a cheque for $7000....I would be very happy with a cheque for $6800...wouldn't we all. Of course the standard giveaways apply:

Indian accent
Time delay of a second (didn't think Canberra was that far)
Story is too good to be true

Anyone else had this one yet?

[blindman]

I hate arrogant calls from Telcos. The best "thing" is quality of such calls - sometime it is like they are calling from Mars :rofl:
Also, looks very ugly when Police is soliciting money.

[traveller]

When I get these phone calls (with the 1-2 second connection relay/delay), I hnad the phone to my 3 year old, who just loves to chat. Funnily enough, the caller doesn't seem to be as keen :confused2:
The other "urban myth" I heard is to press the # key twice during the 1-2 second delay and that scrambles your number so they can't call you anymore. Tired it a few times, but can't really tell you if it works as I am not home much during the day.
Bo

[wasyoungonce]

Poor old India is starting to get a reputation like Nigeria...anything in and out of it is a scam.

I wish I could block whole countries by phone number designations.

[Mliss]

WOW Trevor, that's incredible!

i've not had that call yet.. but thanks for the warning :thumbsup:

I had one the other day where this woman was telling me 'they' had been testing the water in my area and apparently they found more than 50 chemicals in the supply. I'm in WA yet the caller was from (07) ? I should have asked her 'what area are you referring to then'... i'll save that for next time ;)

I promptly told her I'd worked for the Water Corp for years and I disbelieved her speal. She quickly informed me that 80% of the Water Corporation employees use their magic filter :screwy:

i just laughed and said "love, you're barking up the wrong tree" and hung up.

there is a website called "donotcall" where you can register to not be contacted...not sure if it works but might be worth a go if you're getting a high number of calls a day. https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

[Poita]

I was skeptical about the register, but it works, we were getting over 5 calls a day on average, about a month after registering on the Do Not Call register, the calls all stopped.
You can use the website, or even easier, call 1300 792 958 and it takes less than a minute.

[Satchmo]

Donot call register works but charities are exempt so I still get regular charity calls.

[Mliss]

Peter, good to know it actually works :thumbsup:

Mark, maybe you and Trevor need an answering machine ... or a 3yr old like Bo to screen your calls :lol: ;)

[Octane]

Bo, Mel just said you're a 3 year old. I wouldn't take that if I were you. :P

H

[Bassnut]

Business nos are excluded, very unfortunately :mad2:

[DavidTrap]

As are political polling companies - woops, have I just turned this into a political thread.

I know of someone who kept the "Microsoft Help Desk" on the line for 45mins. They would put the phone down and come back to them after a couple of minutes asking for more advice about which button to press, etc. Eventually the caller worked out they were stringing them along and asked why did you talk to us for 45mins if you knew we were phoney - answer, "Because it's 45mins that you could be trying to extort money from someone else".

DT

[Stardrifter_WA]

Forget the do not call register, for as you say charities are exempt. However, if it is a private number, you can always go to a silent number. I did and never get calls from charities. I always thought that they just called numbers sequentially, but apparently not.

Silent numbers do not show up on any lists. I worked for Telstra, as a corporate tester, several years ago and even their people were not able to access numbers unless you had authority to access the right system. It simply came up on the screen as a Silent Number. They were very strict as to who had access.

Having a silent number is great, as you only give the number to those whom you want to call you. When I went silent I also changed the number.

Unfortunately, it is not the same for my mobile. Two weeks ago I got an SMS saying that I had won $2 million US in a free European lottery. All I had to do was sms my name and number. Doh! They sent me an SMS asking for my number :question: And no, I didn't answer it. You do not get something for nothing in this life and so the old adage still applies "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!"

[Stardrifter_WA]

Furthermore, whenever I have to put a phone number down, I always use my mobile, as companies seem to use sms then. The advantage is that you don't have to answer an sms.

[Terry B]

I have a silent number and get absolutely no marketing or scam calls. It's worth the few dollars/month.

[GrahamL]

old but good:thumbsup:

http://www.myspace.com/video/tom-mabe/tom-mabe-telemarketing-crime-scene-prank/44399473

I told one recently part of my parole conditions are that all my
phone calls are monitored by the federal police... he hung up ina blink .

[AndyK]

Charities aren't exactly flavour of the month at the moment are they?!.
I read an article the other day about how much of the donations they get are not going where people think.
I was horrified to learn that (for example) the Surf Lifesaving Foundation spends 62% of donations on "administration".
Apparently this includes considerable sums on telemarketers employed to harass us.

It's a bit of a shame because I suppose it tars the genuine charities with the same brush and then they miss out because people have been alienated by the aggressive ones.

[Stardrifter_WA]

I only give to charities that I know will use most of the funds for support and not administration. Some companies actually get paid to call people soliciting donations.

[cfranks]

That's why I never give money to those people rattling tins outside shopping centres. Most, if not all, get a percentage of what they collect.

Charles

[OneOfOne]

Do not call is great, stops them in their tracks, however, it is only for a certan number of years, three I think? Then you have to re-register otherwise it will start again. Ours expired, then we got a call, so I promptly re-registered....first time a junk call came in handy as a reminder :)

[OneOfOne]

My step daughter used to work for one of the biggest phone charity organisations, they collect for about a dozen charities. They tell people that 100% of the money raised goes to the charity, and it does...then at the end of the month, they send the charity an invoice for their services. They also seem to share the phone numbers, if you give to one of their charities, they then ring you about donating for one of their other charities, before you know it you are on another list. I have at least 6 that ring regularly. I once gave $300 (about triple normal) because I had just got a larger than expected tax return. The next time their "suggested" levels started at $500 and went up to well over a grand, I slammed the phone in their ear telling them they were greedy. They now say "based on the amount you have donated previously....", but I only donated that much once, about three years ago, when I had a full time job! The callers also get paid a minimal retainer per hour, and then more per hour depending on how much they raise, some of the "guns" can raise many thousands of dollars per hour, they are on, perhaps, $100 per hour? Wish I could earn that much :(, when I was a uni student!

[xelasnave]

Pranking telemarketers....

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=utube+pranking+telemarkete r&docid=1241441108479&mid=1788FC8510CDCF85E79D1788FC8510C DCF85E79D&FORM=VIRE1#

alex:):):)

[traveller]

Not taking that bait :P
Anyway, age is not related to maturity, I act like a three year old now and then. :rofl:
Bo

[Ric]

Hope they give me a call, I'm always up for a bit of fun.:evil2:

[Stardrifter_WA]

I agree with Traveller. I often say that "growing old may be compulsory, but growing up is optional". Tag, you it! :D

[danielsun]

Yes, my mother in law received one of $7000 tax calls just the other day. She was suspicious and said that the man gave her the number to call back on and after 10 min he called back saying "why haven't you called", she said "because it's obvious this is a scam" he swore at her and hung up.

[Mliss]

:lol: i missed this. Cheeky H!

:rofl:Ric :evil2:

i watched this today, it's brilliant. http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/10/anatomy-of-virus-call-centre-scam.html

One very long phone call ... but jump forward to about 19mins in and you'll hear the scam fall apart. Love it!!

[mithrandir]

There was a change to the law several years ago to stop sequential and random dialing. I used to have a silent number and was pestered until they made that change.