Beware: If the 'ATO' calls you, it's probably a scam.

They say there’s nothing as certain in life as death and taxes, but we should probably also add ‘scammers preying on vulnerable people’ to that list.

It’s our least favourite time of the year again… tax time. (Seriously, didn’t we just do that?)

Tax returns are confusing and a massive pain in the bum – making them the perfect fodder for entrepreneurial scammers.

One of our Mamamia Women’s Network staffers had a dodgy voicemail message left on her answering machine yesterday.

Luckily, she’s pretty cluey and, instead of calling the number back and handing over her hard-earned cash, she recorded the message so we could spread the word.

The man who left the message said he was “Jason O’Connor from the Australian Taxation Office”.

“The nature and the purpose of this call is just to inform you that there has been a lawsuit filed against your name concerning a tax evasion and this case is about to get executed into the (indecipherable) courthouse of your territory,” he said.

“Before the things go wrong against you, but before one of the police officers from the local police department will approach you and issue a warrant for your arrest.”

You can listen to the message here:

He then requested to be called back and left what appears to be a Sydney telephone number, but is most likely an internet telephone number that can be used from anywhere.

The substandard English and not-quite-right terminology is a bit of a giveaway. The whole ‘you’re going to be arrested’ thing even more so.

But it must work sometimes.

Last month alone, Australians lost more than $6 million to 8,000-plus reported scams – more than half of which were conducted over the phone.

Government agency SCAMwatch has warned Australians to be wary of scammers falsely claiming to be from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or the ATO.

“The scammers may spin a range of stories about why an arrest warrant has been issued, including that you have failed to pay taxes.” SCAMwatch warns.

“Scammers typically ask for money to be sent via wire transfer as it’s nearly impossible to recover money sent this way. They may also ask for people’s financial and other personal details to access their money and use this information to commit other scams.”

Their advice? Hang up.

And if you have handed in dodgy tax statements and you’re concerned, you might want to look up the number of the actual tax office and give them a call.

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