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IRS Warns Of Increasing Number Of Local Phone Scammers
January 24, 2015
Area residents are receiving an increasing number of aggressive and threatening phone calls by criminals impersonating Internal Revenue Service agents.
The IRS has seen a surge of these phone scams in recent months as scam artists threaten police arrest, deportation, license revocation and other things. The IRS reminds taxpayers to guard against all sorts of con games that arise during any filing season.
“If someone calls unexpectedly claiming to be from the IRS with aggressive threats if you don’t pay immediately, it’s a scam artist calling,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “The first IRS contact with taxpayers is usually through the mail. Taxpayers have rights, and this is not how we do business.”
Phone scams have been a persistent and pervasive problem for many taxpayers for many months. Scammers are able to alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS is calling. They use fake names and bogus IRS badge numbers. They often leave “urgent” callback requests. They prey on the most vulnerable people, such as the elderly, newly arrived immigrants and those whose first language is not English. Scammers have been known to impersonate agents from IRS Criminal Investigation as well.
“These criminals try to scare and shock you into providing personal financial information on the spot while you are off guard,” Koskinen said. “Don’t be taken in and don’t engage these people over the phone.”
The IRS will never:
- Call to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.
- Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
- Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.
- Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
- Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.
If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money, here’s what you should do:
- If you know you owe taxes or think you might owe, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. The IRS workers can help you with a payment issue.
- If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to believe that you do, report the incident to the TIGTA at 1-800-366-4484 or at www.tigta.gov.
- If you’ve been targeted by this scam, also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.
Comments
6 Responses to “IRS Warns Of Increasing Number Of Local Phone Scammers”
I also got this call about a month ago. When I called the sheriff’s depart about my concerns I got blown off. So I called the number back and kept the scammer beliving I was so frighten of the IRS showing up at my door.I kept the idiot on the phone for quite sometime. I kept asking him how I could have been so careless by not paying the correct taxes. I thought if the guy was talking to me he wasn’t scamming any of the elderly. I figured give them a taste of the crap! I scammed the scammer! lol
got this call a month or so ago on a saturday. you would have to be gullible to get scammed by this. a woman says she is from the irs and that i owe money and if i don”t pay i”m going to jail. really? i told her to bite me. no one from the government works on saturday, they send mail, never a phone call. she left a number to call. got on line with that number and there was, the scam notice, it was nation wide.
I got a call and wanted me to western union them money…I knew it was a scam because I didn’t owe the IRS..
I got one of these on my answering machine a couple of weeks ago. I decided to have some fun with these clowns by calling them back, and asking lots of questions (I only got two questions out before they hung up. they never would answer my calls again). There are several “tells” in these calls – they claim to be at IRS HQ (which is in Washington DC, area code 202) but the phone calls always come from some other area code. They claim they’re taking you to county court and getting the county sheriff to come get you; IRS tries all criminal cases in Federal District Court through the Department of Justice. The amount of money is only about $5000, and you would never be criminally prosecuted for that amount of money – the prosecution guidelines are much higher than that. Their scam is to scare you into giving them your credit card number over the phone – don’t EVER do that.
This happened to me, twice. First call woke me and angered me. It was a recording. The next call was a recording left on my phone. Both recordings were threatening and pushy and wanted me to call a number to straighten this problem out. I have not had one after these two. My age is what I think they were counting on that would make me a push over……. they were picking on the wrong “antique”. When my mother was alive, they were all over her and they got her money. So, please be aware and be smart. And pay attention to your parents and grandparents as to whether they are being harassed.
I would be more concerned with the IRS, as opposed to the phone scammers.