ATO Phone Scam

Got home today to be greeted by an obvious scam message purportedly from the ATO. A very threatening Indian lady claiming I had committed a fraud and owed the Taxation Department a considerable sum of money, threatening me with immediate arrest and all sorts of dire consequences if I ignored the message and did not call her back immediately.
The number wasn't hidden and she repeated the number at least four times in the message.

Well usually I like to play games with these people and annoy them so much that I end up on their 'do not call' register. I didn't get home till after 5pm but rang them straight back to be greeted by a voice message, no mention of the ATO etc. just a request to leave a message. Looks like they have public service hours in common with the ATO.

So onto the iPad, found a Bible reading that went for over two hours and rang them back, played them 30mins of Bible readings which I hoped would fill up their answering service. After that gave them 15mins and then played 30mins of Fart noises, amazing what you can find on the net. (my phone plans includes unlimited calls).

Maybe childish BUT I was annoyed I didn't get to speak to them direct. That will happen tomorrow!

I'm not condoning this but if anyone gets a call from 02 8317 3564 feel free to annoy the crap out of them. Would be damn funny if everyone on the forum rang them tomorrow and overwhelmed their call centre. You can hide your number easily, 1831 for Telstra land lines.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/ato-phone-scam-warning-in-canberra-with-victims-losing-$100k/7097404

Maybe some rodney rude next time they call.

Tomorrow I'm going to hide my number when I call them, tell them there are eight adults who live here and ask who they want. That should give me 10 mins of entertainment, might relent eventually and tell I think I know who it is they want, then ask them to wait (and wait).
After they hang up I can tear strips off them for being so impatient as I was only trying to help them, put them on hold again.

Maybe Rodney Rude then or How To Talk Australians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQRZXM-4xI

Classic Apollofish! Years ago I got a spam call trying to sell me phone deals. I sat there and listened to all he had to say and when he finished, i put on a "dumb" voice and asked him to repeat his offers because I wanted to write them down, I was very interested in signing up with him. So every time he said something I'd say in my dumb voice "sorry can you repeat that coz I'm trying to write this down". He'd repeat that bit and then I said it back to him very slowly as if I was writing it down. He'd go on to the next bit. "hang on what was that?" So he'd repeat and I'd repeat it slowly back to him pretending to write it down. And on and on it went like that. This went on for 20 minutes before he totally cracked it and he put me through to his supervisor. The supervisor came on and started the speel from scratch and I did the same thing with him until he hung up on me. I cracked up laughing as this took about 30 minutes in total and totally stuffed up their quota for calls/sales per hour. Yes I was having a slow day, had nothing happening and found this great entertainment! Sad but true!!

Got the same message last week. I had a American guy telling me the same stuff.
Had a laugh to myself and deleted it.

I did give the phone to my son when he was about 4 or 5 and told him that they wanted to know who his favourite superhero was, they rang up on him!!!!

Sent from my XT1033

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Originally Posted by Plasnart

Classic Apollofish! Years ago I got a spam call trying to sell me phone deals. I sat there and listened to all he had to say and when he finished, i put on a "dumb" voice and asked him to repeat his offers because I wanted to write them down, I was very interested in signing up with him. So every time he said something I'd say in my dumb voice "sorry can you repeat that coz I'm trying to write this down". He'd repeat that bit and then I said it back to him very slowly as if I was writing it down. He'd go on to the next bit. "hang on what was that?" So he'd repeat and I'd repeat it slowly back to him pretending to write it down. And on and on it went like that. This went on for 20 minutes before he totally cracked it and he put me through to his supervisor. The supervisor came on and started the speel from scratch and I did the same thing with him until he hung up on me. I cracked up laughing as this took about 30 minutes in total and totally stuffed up their quota for calls/sales per hour. Yes I was having a slow day, had nothing happening and found this great entertainment! Sad but true!!

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Did something similar.

Had the time to play with them, so I sounded really interested and asked lots of questions. At the end she was excited and said so can I sign you up?

I paused for a while and said no thanks I just wanted to waste your time, goodbye.

Sent from my XT1033

Have you thought about the possibility that they want you to call the premium rate telephone number that they've provided so that your phone bill sky rockets, and they pick up the value that way? There are a few scams like this in the UK

Last time I got a call at home from the "Windows Helpdesk" telling me my computer was vulnerable and they needed to access it to fix I just said "You do realise you've called a police station, yeah?"

*dead silence* hangs up.

Sometime I have a bit of fun with them.

Hello
Can I speak to the manager/business owner?
Oh you want the manager / owner?
Yes please
I'll get him for you if that's OK?
That will be good thank you.
He's down the back of the factory, his name is Mr Waite. (I put the phone on the bench on speaker and have a laugh at their expense)

Then I had a call,
Hello
Do you own a washing machine?
No I dont own a washing machine, I have a big rock in the back yard and a little Indian chap who beats the crap out of my clothes for a dollar an hour, gets my clothes nice and clean.
Shut (seems they missed the up part of the training)

Then my favorite.
Hello
Hello, are you the manager/business owner?
No I'm the cleaner
Can I speak to the manager/business owner please?
I'm not sure he's kinda busy
I would really like to talk to him if I could.
Well my job is cleaning his arse, I'm in the middle of doing that and he hates to be disturbed when I'm doing my job. It's a good job you know, only have to do it once a day and the rest of the day I just hang around and get paid for the whole day. Best job I've ever had.... kept waffling on
FLICK and a torrent of abuse in Urdu... I think, any way it sounded like abuse then the line went dead.

They are good sports and hope they keep calling.

I just give the phone to my 3 year old and let the laughs begin.

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Apollofish

Got home today to be greeted by an obvious scam message purportedly from the ATO. A very threatening Indian lady claiming I had committed a fraud and owed the Taxation Department a considerable sum of money, threatening me with immediate arrest and all sorts of dire consequences if I ignored the message and did not call her back immediately.
The number wasn't hidden and she repeated the number at least four times in the message.

Well usually I like to play games with these people and annoy them so much that I end up on their 'do not call' register. I didn't get home till after 5pm but rang them straight back to be greeted by a voice message, no mention of the ATO etc. just a request to leave a message. Looks like they have public service hours in common with the ATO.

So onto the iPad, found a Bible reading that went for over two hours and rang them back, played them 30mins of Bible readings which I hoped would fill up their answering service. After that gave them 15mins and then played 30mins of Fart noises, amazing what you can find on the net. (my phone plans includes unlimited calls).

Maybe childish BUT I was annoyed I didn't get to speak to them direct. That will happen tomorrow!

I'm not condoning this but if anyone gets a call from 02 8317 3564 feel free to annoy the crap out of them. Would be damn funny if everyone on the forum rang them tomorrow and overwhelmed their call centre. You can hide your number easily, 1831 for Telstra land lines.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/ato-phone-scam-warning-in-canberra-with-victims-losing-$100k/7097404

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ima give em a phone call this morning mate! what a terrible thing. i do like your bible reading thing though thats pretty damm good

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bulbous

Have you thought about the possibility that they want you to call the premium rate telephone number that they've provided so that your phone bill sky rockets, and they pick up the value that way? There are a few scams like this in the UK

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that number is just a regular sydney number mate, no premium phone calls to that line =D

aww bugger, that number is engaged at the moment =( ill try it later

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rusty_nail

that number is just a regular sydney number mate, no premium phone calls to that line =D

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Thats what it looks like on the surface lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clunk

Thats what it looks like on the surface lol

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It's located in Canberra, I tried them four times yesterday and always engaged. Must be busy calling people and only limited lines. Either that or they have some way of identifying private numbers and not answering them.

All rather disappointing, BUT today is another day.
I'm going fishing now so will try them later.

Well no fish but after several attempts I finally got through to the ATO.
I started to explain how I was confused with their message and they asked me what my number was. Told them I didn't know as I don't ring myself, they must have it as they rang me. This went on for a while, all the while I was getting more and more confused which didn't impress them (not surprisingly).
After about five minutes I told them I thought I must have dialled the wrong number - ignorant pricks hung up on me. When I called them back it was engaged.
Well being persistent I had the iPad ready and rang them this evening, first call rang out. Second call went to answering service, but alas looks like their voice mail is full. Aparanently the system has exceed their voice mail limit.
How sad.

Anonymous just rang again, I know its his name because it comes up on the phones screen.
He is a really nice bloke and rings most days about 12.30 ish while I'm having a bite to eat.
Common to all his calls, after I greet him real nice because he might be a customer, is a delay and he always has some deal for me... really thoughtful.
Today I saw it was him again and thought I would make his day, so I answered " Australian Federal Police, how can I help you" and he hung up!
Pity his number was hidden as I would call him to put his mind at rest.
NOT BLOODY LIKELY haha

You're a nasty, nasty man macca. Love it keep up the good work! bahahaha

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Originally Posted by Touses

You're a nasty, nasty man macca. Love it keep up the good work! bahahaha

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They are good sports putting up with me and ringing back all the time