Safe Guard Your Tax Refund From Scammers
Imagine logging in to do your tax only to find someone else had submitted a tax return in your name and stole your money? It would be a sickening feeling.
Tax scammers compromise victims’ accounts in a number of ways, including direct hacking where login details, possibly obtained in third-party data breaches, are exploited.
Most victims reported to WA ScamNet that their myGov or Australian Tax Office (ATO) accounts had been hacked, leading to fraudulent tax returns being submitted in their name and bank details altered to redirect payments to the scammer.
We are urging you to regularly change strong passwords and switch on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), which requires a second verification step, such as a code sent to your phone, in addition to your password.
Change your myGov username settings to sign in using your myGov username, NOT your email address or mobile number.
In today’s digital landscape, relying on the same password across your various platforms is too risky.
Regularly changing strong passwords and enabling Multi-Factor Authentication creates a crucial second barrier, making it exponentially harder for hackers and scammers to gain unauthorised access to your accounts, even if they manage to compromise your password.
Remember, myGov will never use email, text message, or direct message on social media, to ask you to click on a link to sign in, enter bank details, provide identity documents or provide other personal details. Any such request is a scam.