These scam calls tell you to urgently pay a debt. They say that if you don’t pay it straight away, you’ll be arrested.
Often, the callers claim to be from our legal team. They’ll claim:
- if you don’t pay it straight away, you’ll be arrested
- you can pay through a bank transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency.
This call is a scam. There are a few signs to look out for if you get a call like this:
- we’ll never ask you to transfer money on the phone
- we won’t make unexpected phone calls threatening to arrest you
- we also won’t ask you to pay with gift cards or digital currency
- if you do owe money, we’ll write to you via post or your myGov inbox to let you know.
If you get this call, hang up and remember:
- don’t return the call
- don’t transfer money to the caller
- don’t give the caller your personal details.
There are steps you can take to protect yourself and report a scam. If you’re unsure if a phone call is really from us, you can phone us on your normal payment line to check if it was us.
Read more about Centrelink scams.