Beware of crooks calling you up & claiming to be the IRS.
Every year, con
artists posing as the Internal Revenue Service perpetrate scams on
taxpayers. Their weapon is a telephone, and they use it to leave
thousands of households poorer. These gambits can seem very convincing,
but you need not fall prey to them if you are informed.
The IRS will never call you up & demand money.
Nor will the IRS contact you by phone to discuss your refund. In
addition, it will not use social media, text messages or emails out of
the blue to talk about tax matters with you.1
Not everyone knows
this, and these criminals exploit that fact. In particular, these
crooks target immigrants and elders. They presume that these demographic
groups do not understand tax law and tax collection proceedings as well
as others. Sometimes the caller ID will even suggest the "IRS" to
further the scam.1
Since December
2013, federal investigators have detected about 290,000 fraudulent IRS
calls made to homes and businesses. About 3,000 people succumbed to
these scams during that period, forking over a total of $14 million in
"back taxes" - roughly $5,000 per taxpayer.2
What are the telltale signs of a bogus IRS call? The classic sign is the demand for an immediate payment of
"taxes" when no bill for delinquent taxes has been sent to you by the
IRS to begin with. The IRS nearly always makes initial contact with
taxpayers by mail.2
Another common
move is asking for a credit or debit card number. In one common scam,
the caller alleges that you have unpaid back taxes that can only be
settled by buying a prepaid debit card (and by supplying the card number
to the caller).1
Bullying is
another red flag. In another prevalent scam, a message may be left
saying that this is a "final notice from the Internal Revenue Service"
and tell you that the IRS is filing a lawsuit against you on a business
or personal tax issue. Threats of arrest, deportation or losing your
driver's license may be made. The caller may also tell you that you have
no way to appeal, no chance to plead innocence - you are guilty and
must pay taxes owed now.1,2
How can you report frauds like this? If
you know for a fact that you do not owe any back taxes, call up the
office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
at 1-800-366-4484 and report what happened to you. (TIGTA is on the Web
at tigta.gov.) Alternately, go to FTC Complaint Assistant website
maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and file a complaint
there (click on "Other" in the right-side menu, and then click on
"Imposter Scams"). Start your notes with the phrase "IRS Telephone
Scam."1
If you think you
actually might owe some back taxes, call the IRS instead at
1-800-829-1040 as that really should be resolved; IRS staffers can
assist you with such a matter.1
Watch out for these crooks, and let others know about their tactics so that they may avoid becoming victims.
Citations.
1 - irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Scam-Phone-Calls-Continue;-IRS-Identifies-Five-Easy-Ways-to-Spot-Suspicious-Calls [10/29/14]
2 - cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/01/nearly_3000_people_in_us_have.html [1/23/15]
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Sincerely,
Bill Morrissey, CFP® and Tammy Prouty, CFP®
Sound Financial Planning, Inc.
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