Somebody from Down Under, I need help....

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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:13 pm

Help!!!

I’m still new, I haven’t been assigned a mentor so I’m still asking a bunch of stupid questions.

I just received a message from the Australian Taxation Office saying I’m due a refund. They want my debit card information so they can transfer the funds there.

How do I go about reporting the bogus site to get it shut down????

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:20 pm

Head over here: http://domains.whois.com/domain.php?action=whois

Get a whois done for the URL of the site, and find out who the ISP is. In the whois info there should be an e-mail address meant for reporting abuse. Send them an e-mail including your proof of the fact that it's a scam (the e-mail you got and a link to the site) and send them the bunch of whois information you got (they can get that themselves, but still).
Ask 'm to shut it down, usually this is done within 24 hours in case of phishing sites, and this doesn't really sound like the fake bank kind of thing.

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 1:50 pm

The ATO doesn't seem that interested.
www.ato.gov.au/corporate/content.asp?doc=/content/00196296.htm

Quote:

Tax Commissioner Michael D’Ascenzo said anyone who receives the email should delete it immediately.

“The Tax Office never sends emails asking people to provide personal information including credit card details.

“People should always be wary of unsolicited emails claiming to be from the Tax Office.

“As an extra precaution we recommend you type internet addresses directly into your internet browser rather than clicking on links embedded in emails,” Mr D’Ascenzo said.

These websites are often set up in multiple jurisdictions making them difficult to trace and to effectively shut them down.

Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 2:00 pm

^ I find we usually manage shutting them down quite nice...

It's a shame they're not really interested, actively pursuing this would save a lot of victims...

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:36 am

@ Jack Pump,

This type of scam is the same as the bank phishing emails. You'll likely find that the website hosting the fake ATO page is otherwise innocent and ignorant of the fraud being commited on their site. It's usually the work of website hackers. The best thing to do is to check the domain credentials with whois and report the fraudulent page to the webmaster/owner of the hacked site.

The ATO can do nothing but try to educate people to ignore/delete these emails.

Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 9:16 am

For some reason Australian banks and credit unions are flavour of the month if my catcher accounts are anything to go by.

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