Phone calls and voice mail messages, mostly from a Sydney number, have been received by a number of older locals.

The ATO is warning Australians to be on the lookout for aggressive tax debt scams at tax time. Scammers are particularly active during tax time because of the large number of people lodging their tax return and receiving refunds.

From January to May this year, the ATO received over 40,500 phone scam reports. Of these, more than 220 Australians handed over $1.2 million to fraudsters. Over 1900 gave out some form of personal information, including tax file numbers.

“Most Australians are pretty good at catching fraudsters in the act. This is clear from the number of scams reported to us compared to the number of people handing over money and personal information,” said Assistant Commissioner Graham Whyte.

“We encourage people to continue to be vigilant and to protect their personal information by keeping it private.”

Although the ATO makes thousands of outbound calls to taxpayers a week, there are some key differences between a legitimate call from the ATO and a call from a potential scammer.

“We would never cold call you about a debt; we would never threaten you with jail or arrest, and our staff certainly wouldn’t behave in an aggressive manner.”

One Wingham resident was left a threatening message on her phone.

The caller identified herself as Jennifer Smith calling from ATO Australian Taxation Office. She said the nature and purpose of her call was regarding a legal lawsuit. She asked to be called back as soon as possible.

The caller then went on to leave a phone number to contact her on saying “If I don’t receive a call from you I will take all the legal actions needed...”

If you think you have been contacted by a fraudster or fallen victim to a phone scam, contact the Australian Taxation Office on 1800 008 540.