{"id":153075,"date":"2016-07-28T19:49:29","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T09:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=153075"},"modified":"2020-10-08T16:42:06","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T06:42:06","slug":"voting-fine-letter-a-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/28\/voting-fine-letter-a-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting Fine Letter A Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Federal police have warned a letter from the non-existent Australian Electoral Commission of Queensland ‘fining’ people $168 for not voting in the Federal election is a scam (Photo: AEC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 28, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

South Burnett residents have been warned not to respond to a scam letter demanding a $168 payment for failure to vote at the July 2 Federal Election.<\/p>\n

The letter, which carries the Queensland Government’s logo, is designed to look authentic but says payment of the “fine” can only be made through the Internet.<\/p>\n

The letter claims to be from the Australian Electoral Commission of Queensland, a non-existent body.<\/p>\n

The Australian Electoral Commission and the Australian Federal Police have been made aware of the letter, and have warned anyone who receives it not to act on it.<\/p>\n

To add to the confusion, the Electoral Commission of Queensland last week sent out Apparent Failure to Vote Notices seeking a $58 payment for failing to vote at the March 19 Council elections.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While most of the letters were sent to people who failed to vote, some people who did vote have received the letters as well.<\/p>\n

ECQ Commissioner Walter van der Merwe said the $58 payment request letter from the ECQ was a legitimate document, but an internal error had seen some voters mistakenly fined.<\/p>\n

He said a letter of apology would be sent to those wrongly fined in the next few days advising them not to worry about paying.<\/p>\n

For anyone who had already paid the fine, Mr van der Merwe said a refund would be provided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Burnett residents have been warned not to respond to a scam letter demanding a $168 payment for failure to vote at the July 2 Federal Election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,24],"tags":[1132],"yoast_head":"\nVoting Fine Letter A Scam - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Burnett residents have been warned not to respond to a scam letter demanding a $168 payment for failure to vote at the July 2 Federal Election.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/07\/28\/voting-fine-letter-a-scam\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Voting Fine Letter A Scam - 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