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Old 26-10-2011, 08:08 AM
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OneOfOne (Trevor)
Meteor & fossil collector

OneOfOne is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Bentleigh
Posts: 1,386
$7000 tax department phone scam

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/bus...-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?
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