ATO Phone Scam

[rusty_nail]

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

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