Australia Reverse Phone Lookup

Similar thing happened to my mother, call from a supposed government worker from the 'reclaim department', telling her she was owed $7248 in back taxes.

She was given a reference number and phone number 0280914367 to call. The names given were Jessica Williams, Jack Ryan and Veronica Scott. I called for her and as soon as he knew I was on to him, he yelled at me for wasting his time.

No money was changed hands luckily and hopefully the more people that know the less will be affected.

I guess the hard part is that the internet is not the best way to get news out to the generation that are being targeted. I think the best advice is, if it's too good to be true - then it probably is.

Also to just hang up as soon as you suspect it is a scam, if it really is a legitimate call with important news, then they will get back to you.

Being a multicultural country, accents aren't the best way to tell, the guy I spoke to at scam watch sounded exactly the same as the scam caller.

It's infuriating that people are targeting pensioners like this and I suppose there is not so much they can do if they are operating from overseas, best to just warn any likely targets that you know.

This phone number was used by somebody calling themselves "Veronica Scott" from "Australian Reclaim Department".

I believe this name and company to be fictitious and a front to obtain money by deception.

This "Veronica Scott" person has defrauded my mother out of almost $2,000 in the past week by requesting a series of wire transfers through Western Union to a separate male recipient in Delhi India ("Daniel Joseph Sleiman").

This "Veronica Scott" person presented the represented "Australian Reclaim Department" as a registered government agency facilitating government refunds to individuals. The $2,000 requested to be paid by my mother was for 'fees' to enable the transaction to happen. In return, my mother was promised a cash reimbursement due of around $8,000 with the payment of fees.

My mother contacted me after becoming suspicious when further fees were demanded.

My fears for fraudulent activity were realised after calling the phone number and speaking directly to this "Veronica Scott" person who is definitely running a fraudulent operation and receiving money by deception.

I have reported the money wire transactions to Western Union and am making a separate police report for fraud.

Now reporting the Sydney phone number 02 80914367 as being connected to this scam operation which needs investigating. The address that "Veronica Scott' gave me in Sydney does not exist. Obviously her name is fake - even without the heavy Indian accent.

These criminals need to be shut down before they defraud any other innocent unsuspecting pensioners out of their savings.