Don't fall for the IRS scammers

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Casey: Don't fall for the IRS scammers

Didn't we just go through this?

Phone scam: someone called me today to tell me I was preapproved for a loan up to $10,000.

Yes, but they never stop.

Full disclosure: the "IRS" called me a few times back in December. I was instructed to call a phone number with a 202 area code, which is that of DC. I didn't.

3,000 victims have been taken for $14 million

The scam, said an IRS spokeswoman, began in October 2013. So far, at least 290,000 people have been contacted by phony IRS "agents."

Posted: Monday, February 9, 2015 10:30 pm

By Dan Casey [e-mail] 981-3423

The woman on the other end of the line identified herself as “Officer Pearl Kenny” and she helpfully gave me her badge number: NM7869.

When I had called a few minutes earlier, at [phone], she answered “Thank you for calling the IRS. How can I help you?”
....

But it’s not the IRS. Instead, it’s an organized bunch of confidence tricksters running one of the latest scams out there. Already it’s swindled millions of dollars from thousands of victims, according to the IRS. Fortunately, Wolfe was not one of them.
....

“The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has received reports of roughly 290,000 contacts since October 2013 and has become aware of nearly 3,000 victims who have collectively paid over $14 million as a result of the scam,” IRS spokeswoman Jennifer Jenkins told me. In other words, they score on about one in 1,000 calls.

[madashelltoo]

1. I got a call from them too.

I did not answer. They left a message. "This is the IRS and we have been trying to contact you. If you don't return this call before the end of today, we will be filing a lawsuit." I laughed. If there was ever anyone who does NOT have to file a lawsuit to get their money, it's the IRS.

[MurrayDelph]

2. The IRS does not phone

they send mail.

I have received many of these "love letters" over the years, especially when my sister was alive and we had a joint investment account. The IRS would ask why the 1099 said we had received $x in dividends, but one or the other of us had only claimed $x/2 of the money. We would remind them that the other half was claimed on my (or my sister's) returns, and that would be the end of it.

But, when we received a robo phone call earlier this week, we just hung up.

[Nye Bevan]

3. The IRS will not phone and tell you to go to the drugstore to buy a Green Dot Money Card

in order to pay your outstanding back taxes, with the threat of arrest if you do not. (Yes, I received just such a call).

[dhill926]

4. I simply never answer the phone...

if a number, rather than a name comes up on the screen. If it's someone I don't know, they can always leave a message.