The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has told the public to watch out for a MyGov Scam that is asking recipients of an email to update their MyGov government ID details.
The ATO says that “scammers pretending to be from the ‘MyGov’ customer care team” are sending emails telling people they need to verify their identity by clicking on a link.
It’s imperative that if you have, or in the future receive an email from someone purporting to be from MyGov’s support team that you do not click on any provided links.
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It’s likely that the link provided will take the user to some form of malicious software that can steal personal information if you enter your legitimate government username and password.
The ATO says that “you will get email or SMS notifications from myGov whenever there are new messages in your myGov Inbox, however, these messages will never include a link to log on to your myGov account.”
“Always access our online services directly via one of the following: my.gov.au, ato.gov.au, the ATO app.”
The ATO’s Assistant Commissioner, Ben Foster has said that “these messages will never include a link to log on to your myGov account… this new phishing scam contains classic warning signs like asking people to click a link to confirm their details and spelling errors.”
“We encourage everyone to be on alert,” Mr Foster concluded.
ATO Says Watch Out For This MyGov Scam
General manager of Services Australia, Hank Jongen has said that in the wake of scammers becoming more sophisticated, and their scams becoming ever-more convincing, everyone should be critical of emails asking for a confirmation of personal details.
“If you’ve opened an email that looks suspicious, don’t click any links, open any attachments or reply to it,” he said. “If you’ve received the suspicious email and provided your myGov sign with information, you should take immediate action.”
“Change your myGov password, and if you’ve provided your banking details, contact your bank,” Jongen said.
Mr Jongen urged members of the public to contact Service Australia’s scam and identity helpdesk on 1800 941 126 if they believe they’ve come into contact with a scam, handed over details or have additional insight they can give authorities.
“Staff will be able to give you advice on what to do if you’ve been scammed, and connect you with identity recovery services,” Mr Jongen concluded.
