Much attention is currently being given to border security , but little to the frequent Australian home invasions being carried out over the phone by scumbags preying on people , endless calls from telemarketers , spam emails.
A recent female telephone caller opened the conversation with this blogger by saying she was from the Tax Office . Really ? Being an old journo who was involved in consumer protection before Australia had an Ombudsman and consumer protection departments in states and territories, I instantly sensed a scam . When I challenged the claim that she had introduced herself as being from the Tax office and expressed my belief that Taxation does not ring up people, she denied having said she was from Tax...No, Dun and Bradstreet , who happen to be the large debt collecting , credit reporting and business info company . She asked if this was a certain company-no.
There are important issues here : claiming it was Tax, then invoking the name Dun and Bradstreet, surely of concern to both organisations .
Some days later the Townsville ABC ran a story about local people having an elderly, distressed woman , a neighbour, coming to their house trying to borrow $5000 from them because the Taxation Department had rung saying she owed the money . The claim was that her phone was being monitored and they were on the way to arrest her. Television subsequently reported a businessman receiving a similar call and a demand for $8000.
Police confirmed this type of scam was being worked in the Townsville area and people should not respond to such calls and never ever give any information about themselves to anybody wanting details over the phone . Townsville has been subjected to various telephone caller scams, one claiming unpaid power bills .
