Scammers pretending to be police and tax office officials prompt fresh warning

There's a fresh warning today about scammers posing as police in South Australia, asking for people to hand over their personal information.

South Australia Police has today issued an alert about the scammers, who also claim to be from the Australian Tax Office.

"The caller claims to be a police officer and tells their victim that there has been an identity theft and the Australian Taxation Office will be calling them within a few minutes," police said in a statement today.

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"The scammer then calls the victim claiming to be working for the ATO and requests their personal details."

Police say the scammers are using technology to make it look like the calls originate from a police station by manipulating the caller identification.

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If anyone receives such a call there are being urged to not hand over any personal information and to hang up.

South Australia Police does not make calls on behalf of the ATO.

"Although they can change the caller ID, they do not have access to actual phone number itself," police said in their statement.

"This means that if you were to ring back the phone number, it would actually go the intended recipient, not the scammers."

Police say no-one should ever provide personal information, credit card or online account details over the phone unless you made the call and if in doubt, hang up the phone and call the person back on a known, reputable number.