Three people have been arrested in India for allegedly extorting money from Bollywood actress currently living in Perth, by threatening her with arrest over tax violations.
According to the Indian police, Isha Sharvani, who has acted in a number of Bollywood movies and moved to Australia a few years ago, was allegedly threatened over the phone by men presenting themselves as the Australian Taxation Office officials.
“She got a call from an Australian number and was told that the caller was from the ATO and was calling from Canberra. She was told that she had defaulted on tax payments and that if she didn’t pay the penalty, she would be arrested,” Anyesh Roy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Delhi, told reporters.
He said Ms Sharvani was made to transfer $5,700 via private money transfer operators while the callers were still on the call with her.
“After the call ended, she received a similar call, this time telling her that there had been financial transactions from her account to some alleged terrorist groups. She then got suspicious and contacted the local police in Perth,” Mr Roy said.
The ‘Kisna’ actress then got in touch with the Delhi police to report the incident. He said the investigators then sought the details of the recipient of the funds from the money transfer business and the trail led them to an allegedly fake call centre.
“It’s a major breakthrough for our cybercrime unit in our campaign against organised cybercrime. We have busted a fake call centre that particularly targeted Australian citizens,”Mr Roy said.
Three men, including the operator of the call centre, the caller and the operator of the money transfer business that received the money have been arrested.
Scams to cost over $500 million this year
Tax scams are so common in Australia that the Australian Taxation office publishes a monthly report to detail the number of incidents reported and money lost to these scams.
In July this year, 6,645 phone scam reports were recorded and nearly $200,000 lost to the alleged scammers. These reports peaked in November last year when nearly 38,000 people reported having been scammed.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the projected losses to Australians due to scams are expected to cross half a billion dollars in 2019.
The ATO advises people to protect their personal information. It says they sometimes quote personal information to sound authentic.
“If someone asks for your bank or personal details, money, refunds or free gifts, be cautious. Consider the possibility that it may be a scam – even if you think you know the person well,” it says.
The ACCC chair Delia Rickard says people need to refresh and update their scam protection and detection skills.
Many people are confident they would never fall for a scam but often it’s this sense of confidence that scammers target,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.
“People need to update their idea of what a scam is so that we are less vulnerable. Scammers are professional businesses dedicated to ripping us off. They have call centres with convincing scripts, staff training programs, and corporate performance indicators their ‘employees’ need to meet.”
“Remember, anyone could fall victim and no one is ‘too smart to be scammed’. Always ask yourself, ‘could this be a scam?’ and if you’re ever in doubt, decline the contact or hang up the phone — it’s often the safest option,” Ms Rickard said.
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