Local resident Mahri Koch has heard multiple reports of people in the district receiving calls from someone claiming to be from the Australian Tax Office, providing their name (David Jones is one example), their ‘badge Id number’, and the "’case number" for the target person they are calling. The callers appear to have Indian accents.

The supposed Tax Office employee aggressively advises the targeted person that there is a petition being filed for their immediate arrest for fraud for failing to respond to multiple communications, specifically a "non-lodgement form".  The scammer refuses to explain what this form is.

The person is then told they owe $2400 (or more) to the Tax Office which must be paid within one hour, and that they are being charged with fraud as well for avoiding the Tax Office. They are then instructed to go immediately to Woolworths to buy an iTunes card to the value of the debt and send it to the scammers' address.

Most people hang up on hearing the outrageous iTunes card instruction, but in some instances the scammer says he is ‘sending you upstairs to a supervisor’ – a second scammer – who advises that the police have been issued with an warrant and they will be on the doorstep in half an hour to make an arrest. 

Th scammers are not above leaving repeated voice messages along similar lines if no-one answers, directing the recipient to call a hotline immediately. The numbers provided are all “unable to be contacted/no longer operating" according to Telstra.

“I am personally concerned that vulnerable people may fall for this scam, so getting the information out to the public might help prevent this happening,” Dr Koch said.

No-one wants to be rude but if a call seems suspicious, the best advice is to just hang up.