Telephone Scam Artists Bully Taxpayers

A pervasive telephone scam is targeting taxpayers across the country. The scam artists want to steal your identity and your money.

The victims are told they owe money to the IRS and that it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. Mark Hanson is the IRS spokesperson for North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

“This is what is alarming about these recent scandals and there have been hundreds of reports around the country and those numbers will probably continue to grow. In many instances, these scam artists have the last four digits of a victim's social security number and when the scam artists call you, if you check your caller ID, the number is showing up as an IRS toll free number. There is also background noise showing up in some of these calls that make the calls sound like they are coming from a real call center,” says Hanson.

Hanson says many of the victims are recent immigrants to the United States. He says not only have the scam artists found a way to make themselves seem legitimate, but they also are using bullying tactics to get a victim's personal information, if they fail to cooperate.

“We are hearing reports that the victims are threatened with jail time, they are threatened to have their driver's license revoked, they are threatening to revoke business licenses and other threats are being deployed here, simply not the way that the IRS does business,” says Hanson.

Hanson says the IRS usually makes first contact with a taxpayer by mail.

He says there are a few things you can do if you get a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS. First, if you know you owe taxes, or think you owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040.

If you don't owe taxes or don't think you owe them, you can call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484. Victims can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov (add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint).