ATO warns Australians filing tax returns to be alert to opportunistic scammers who may seek to impersonate government agencies
Many of these scammers originate overseas, but cybersecurity experts have said there is also an added danger of artificial intelligence being used to impersonate an Australian accent.
It has prompted the taxation office to issue a warning and has cyber security experts alarmed.
Sophos field chief information security officer for APJ Aaron Bugal said lack of knowledge about how the ATO communicates can lead to Australians falling victim to tax scams.
"With added pressure of tax season and people unaware that the ATO's main form of communication is through their myGov inbox rather than direct emails or phone calls, it's understandable that individuals are often caught off guard," Mr Bugal said, as reported by Cyber Daily.
Mr Bugal said the stress of collating financial information and then filing the returns creates an ideal environment for scammers to operate in.
The field chief information security officer said scammers are now turning to artificial intelligence to create deep fakes of people and famous Australians which have conned people.
"Identifying these scams is becoming increasingly tough. Scammers are now leveraging AI to duplicate official ATO emails with alarming accuracy," he said.
"It's not just the less tech-savvy who are at risk; even vigilant users can be misled. Just one click can result in financial loss, identity theft, and repeated fraud attempts."
In a statement, the ATO said it would never make unsolicited calls or SMS messages to people, adding official messages would come through myGOV.
"We may send you an SMS or email asking you to contact us, but we'll never send an unsolicited message with a link asking you to return personal information or log into our online services," it said.
To contact the ATO, head to www.ato.gov.au or call 13 28 65
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