ATO Threatening Arrest SCAM

[Allan_L (Allan)]

I just received a call from (supposedly) Ron Watson of the Legal Division of the Australian Taxation Office, Sydney.

The caller ID came up as a Sydney number (02) 83104969.

I didn't recognise the number so let it go through to the answering machine (in monitor mode so I could hear the message being left).

I was surprised that they left a message, most scammers do not.

I was told I would be arrested on Tax Fraud charges unless I called him back.

The voice sounded a lot like Stephen Hawking.

So I just reported it to Scam Watch.

Stay safe, trust no one, especially cold callers.

[PCH (Paul)]

I got that the other day Allan.

If you google that 02 number, you'll see that lots of peeps have had the call.

I have to say that to the unwary, meaning poor saps with even less brain power than me, those guys do hit all the right nerve endings and it's easy to see how they might put the jitters up people.

Actually, having said that, the number I was asked to call was different and there were lots of mentions in the big G - but your number doesn't get heaps of serps in google - so might be a new one that they've just started using.

[LewisM]

I just got a call from Stephen Hawking. He sounded like Ron Watson and told me if I didn't call him back the cosmos would implode in 15 billion years. I am in no rush to return the call.

Seriously, get yourself on the Do Not Call government list and avoid all this nonsense. Haven't had a bogus call in 6 years.

https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

This kind of thing is the reason I never answer a number I don't know, or a private number.
I wonder just how much this costs companies that are legitimately calling people, when so few of their calls would be answered.

[Atmos (Colin)]

For future reference for anyone that gets anything along these lines, no agency can issue an arrest unless several attempts have been made by letter (typically three) and a court order has been issued and ignored. Even then a warrant has to be issued for your arrest.

This is of course unless you're doing something along the lines of "Catch me if you can", then just run for your life and never look back

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Originally Posted by LewisM

I just got a call from Stephen Hawking. He sounded like Ron Watson and told me if I didn't call him back the cosmos would implode in 15 billion years. I am in no rush to return the call.

Seriously, get yourself on the Do Not Call government list and avoid all this nonsense. Haven't had a bogus call in 6 years.

https://www.donotcall.gov.au/

Seriously Lewis, I have been on the donotcall list since it started.
But I don't think scammers pay too much attention to this protocol.

The point of the post was simply to warn others, as was said, to the unwary it pushes all the right buttons.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Next time, put your closest 2 year-old son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin, niece or nephew on the phone and let them have a blast.

H

[Larryp (Laurie)]

I am on the "Do not Call" list and received one of these calls threatening me with court action by the Taxation Dept. After uttering 2 words, which I cannot print here, I just hung up on him. My caller had an Indian accent.

[allan gould]

I had a different one last week where a chap cold called and wanted to know if I was the owner of the house and had been involved in a car accident just recently giving my name. It was obviously a scam - the usual lag between answering the phone, background chatter and then an Indian accented person querying me. I led them on for a while and then informed them that the call was being traced and they quickly hung up

[Visionary (David)]

Originally Posted by allan gould

I had a different one last week where a chap cold called and wanted to know if I was the owner of the house and had been involved in a car accident just recently giving my name. It was obviously a scam - the usual lag between answering the phone, background chatter and then an Indian accented person querying me. I led them on for a while and then informed them that the call was being traced and they quickly hung up

Allan,

I have recieved a number of cold calls using this as their hook. As a matter of course I ask for their GPS co ordinates and if their situated near schools, hospitals or other sensitive sites that need to be avoided in Drone attacks.

David

[sn1987a (Barry)]

Just ask them "what are you wearing?" and go from there

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

Just ask them "what are you wearing?" and go from there

Hahhahahahhaha, priceless, must try that one next time. But I like the idea of a drone attack threat as well .... options, ideas.

[AussieTrooper (Ben)]

Originally Posted by sn1987a

Just ask them "what are you wearing?" and go from there

Good call!

[Paul Haese]

My response to these types of calls is "oh Goodie a scammer" and then I call out to the Mrs to tell her we have a scammer on the line even if she is not there. They usually hang up.

We get one scammer a week now. Usually Indian accent and from Microsoft and reporting my computer has been hacked. Everyone knows that one. Annoying but fun if you make it that way.

Another cool one is to let them think you are genuinely worried and sit there whilst they describe what is going to happen to you or is happening to your computer etc and let them walk you through doing stuff on your computer all the while just doing something else. After some time they work out that you are not doing what they are asking and either hang up or ask you if you are actually doing it. I then say no I am not and I just wanted to see how gullible you were. That usually ends with a click on the line.

Being on the do not call register does not stop scammers. It just stops Australian cold callers.

[allan gould]

Had another cold call from a scammer today with the usual I'm from Microsoft and there is something wrong with your computer.
This time I played along and said that my son does all the computing stuff and that recently it's been slowing down a lot and it must be all the viruses he has picked up from going to naughty sites.
But this time I had him for about 30 minutes on the line with him asking me to boot up the computer and follow his commands. I got him quite upset with the silly bugger on the other end when he asked me what I saw in the window on the screen, having taken a while to get to that point in the exercise. I started to describe it in detail and got him really puzzled when he asked what window was I looking at and I blithely said the one that looks into my neighbours bedroom.
Then I had a great time not understanding his heavy accent, confusing b with d etc. He really got exasperated and saying r for Romeo etc etc and I kept messing it up until I asked if he had a sister and what was she wearing (intimate apparel only) at that point he gave some expletives and hung up.
My wife thought I was terrible but I needed a little humour in my life.
Allan

[LewisM]

My grandmother got one of these recently. She said for them to hang on and to talk to her son, as he was computer savvy.

So, my father jumped on the line. Rights, so we have a microsoft problem on our computer he says. Indian goes through telling him what to do. Father pretends to be booting up the computer, but keeps telling the guy that he cannot find the boot disk....

Apparently the guy was getting pretty huffy, and asked what system the computer was. Father said "I thought YOU knew?".

No, replied the scammer.

"Oh, its an Apple"

click.

Yes, my grandmother DOES have an ANCIENT old Apple (first gen - probably worth some money now to a collector!!!).

[OICURMT]

Got one yesterday...

ATO blah blah blah...

http://www.reverseau.com/02-6100-8401.html

[Eggmoon (Geoff)]

Not fair....

I actually used to work in the ATO, and I have never been lucky enough to get one of these calls so I can play along for a while. Could be fun....

Geoff.

[The_bluester (Paul)]

We share a house with my mother (Share 44 acres actually) and she does print publishing work. Her machine (A Mac, the print industry live and breath Macs) is next to the dining table as is her phone. She also has two Cochlear implants and for some reason finds speakerphone easiest to use. Long story short, one night when we had a group around for dinner, her phone rang so she answered it on speakerphone as usual. Queue "We are calling from Microsoft" and the entire dining table erupts with laughter, blown raspberries and "Pull the other one" type comments at the top of our voices.

The call was quite short.

[Reichter]

I ask them to speak up a bit as their line is sounding faint. I assume they would put the ear piece closer to hear me talking faintly as well, then I scream as loud as I can into the phone! I hope it blows their ear drums out!