“Message from the ATO. My name is Jason O’Connell calling you from the Australian Taxation Office, and the nature and the purpose of this call is just to inform you that there has been a lawsuit filed against your name concerning tax evasion, and this case is about to get executed into the common delt(?) code house(?) of your territory. So, before things go wrong against you but before the police officer from the local police department will approach you at your doorstep and issue a warrant for your arrest, kindly call me back on the call back number, which is (02) 61528629. I repeat my number again, which is (02) 61528629. Again, this is Jason O’Connell from the Australian Taxation Office, the ATO. Thank you and ….” (call abruptly cuts off)I think what I love most about this message from the "Australian Taxation Office" is that while they seem quite confident filing a lawsuit against me, they don't appear to know who I am - at no stage does "Jason" state my actual name. And, since my income has been below the tax-free threshold for the last few years - meaning that I haven't had to pay any tax in the last few years - I suspect it would be highly unlikely, if not impossible, for me to have committed tax evasion on tax which I didn't have to pay. Also, the phone number given by Mr O'Connell (which I didn't ring) bears no resemblance at all to the phone numbers of the actual Australian Taxation Office. So I have concluded, in my infinite wisdom, that this phone message is actually an enormous pile of horsecrap.
Still, a part of me hopes that I am wrong and that the police officer from my local police department does 'approach [me] at [my] doorstep' (actually, doorsteps - there are 3 steps to my door) with a warrant for my arrest (because arresting someone is the very first thing the Tax Office does when trying to recoup unpaid taxes) as being arrested is an exciting experience I've never tried and, as a bonus, my arrest might freak out my annoying neighbour.
Note: I did check the ATO website and, surprise surprise, this is actually a scam - if I had rung the phone number, the scammers would've instructed me to send them a money order for some amount of money (which would presumably pay off my "tax debt") and if I didn't send them this money, the POLICE OFFICER would come and arrest me, straight away, right on my doorstep!
