SMSF practitioners and members have been encouraged to download and use a new app developed by the ATO that will allow them to lock down their fund in the event of suspicious activity without needing to contact the regulator first.
ATO SMSF director Kellie Grant said the revised app was a key tool that worked in conjunction with alerts issued by the regulator to help protect funds from attempts to defraud money from trustees and members.
“What we find is SMSFs are increasingly, unfortunately, being targeted by fraudsters and scammers due to the large sums of money held in them, so the ATO has implemented additional identity checks and protective alerts to safeguard SMSFs,” Grant said during a recent presentation hosted by The Auditors Institute.
“We conduct additional identity checks when a fund is first established and issue protective alerts when there are changes to the fund’s details or when a new member is added.
“The changes to a fund’s details that activate an alert are change of address, phone number and bank account details as they can be an early warning of identity fraud, which is why we try to confirm any of those changes made are correct as soon as possible.
“We send those alerts via text messages or email, so if your clients receive one of these alerts and did not make changes to their fund details, they should contact the ATO so we can assist them in protecting their identity and their retirement savings.”
She added SMSF members were also able to take preventative action via the ATO app, which was first released in 2013 but was updated in November.
“We encourage both yourself and your clients to download our new ATO app as a way to protect against fraud,” she said.
“This is because if you receive a notification via the app about a change to your tax or super account that looks suspicious, you have the ability to immediately, via the app, lock down your account without having to contact us, which is good because most fraud occurs after business hours when you can’t necessarily get through to us.
“I really highly recommend you and your clients download this app so you have that option available as it provides real-time notifications about potential fraud.
“You also have the ability to unlock your account when you have been able to further investigate it and are satisfied that everything’s okay.”
