ATO accidentally deposits $26K in Melbourne couple’s account
A Melbourne couple have received a shock $26,000 windfall from the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
The woman known as Gay rang in to 3AW radio on Tuesday after discovering a $16,290 deposit in her bank account from the ATO.
“I jumped on to pay a bill on ah yesterday and looked down at the figure and it was quite substantially larger than it should be,” she said.
"My initial thought was that oh they've just made a mistake with the bank account and put it into mine instead of somebody else's.”
However, Gay then revealed that her husband also received $10,000 in his account as well.
The couple are yet to lodge their tax return, but said they wouldn’t have received such a large amount.
She called her tax accountant and enquired with them about the highly unusual circumstances.
“The lady said that last Friday she tried to contact a few people because their system had been compromised and someone was lodging tax returns on, you know, on our behalf.
"And she was frantically trying to contact the tax agency, or the tax office to alert them to the fraudulent behaviour, so that they could then contact our bank and get that money back.”
Gay said she was worried that someone would come after the couple looking for their money. And they know her address and phone number now.
She’s also concerned others may be caught up in the scam.
The Australian Tax Office said in a statement it is investigating reports.
“The ATO is investigating recent reports. There is no information to suggest ATO systems have been compromised,” it read.
The agency said if you have received a payment from the ATO which you were not expecting, they can be contacted on 13 28 61.