The ATO is warning taxpayers to be alert for scammers impersonating the ATO, using a range of new ways to get taxpayers’ money and personal information.

While the ATO regularly contacts people by phone, email and SMS, there are some tell-tale signs that you’re being contacted by someone who isn’t with the ATO. The ATO will never:

• send you an email or SMS asking you to click on a link to provide login, personal or financial information, or to download a file or open an attachment;

• use aggressive or rude behaviour, or threaten you with arrest, jail or deportation;

• request payment of a debt using iTunes or Google Play cards, pre-paid Visa cards, cryptocurrency or direct credit to a personal bank account; or

• ask you to pay a fee in order to release a refund owed to you.