RING! RING! "Hello, this is the IRS and you owe money." NOT!

One thing I love about working for the Kirkwood Agency is that we are one big team. If something is happening in the world that could affect us, it will be shared throughout the office, either in an email, chat or during our weekly meetings. Recently, one of us got a call from a random number in Washington, DC and they call went something like this:

“Hello. We have been trying to reach you. I am from the office of the Internal Revenue Services calling to inform you that there is currently a lawsuit being filed against you. You have a total of $1000.00 in back taxes and it needs to be paid today. To make it easy, we have provided a few options for you; Give me your credit card number or take cash to this location and someone will be there to pick it up.”  “Ok great! Where can I meet you to take you the cash? You need my social security number?” NOT!

Who knew there are people out there actually pulling off IRS scams over the phone?  So, of course, I went to the IRS site to see what they had to say about this scam. They had it listed among their Dirty Dozen. The top of their list is Identity Theft but Phone Scams was right underneath it. The people behind this widespread Phone Scam sound like they are official employees of the IRS and some have most of your information, which makes it even scarier. This is what the IRS posted on their site about these phone scams:

5 Things Scammers Do but the IRS DOES NOT:
1. Call to demand payment or to inform you of taxes owed. They will first mail you a bill.
2. Demand payment right then and there, without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the said amount owed. 
3. Make you use a specific form of payment, such as a prepaid credit card or even an iTunes gift card, nothing else.
4. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
5. Threaten you with law-enforcement to have you arrested for non-pay.

They also made sure to included steps to take if you don’t owe taxes and/or if you do owe. If you know you owe or may think you owe taxes, call the IRS 800-829-1040 and someone will be able to assist you there.  If you do not think that you owe any taxes but have gotten this phone call:

1. Make sure you do not give out any information and hang up the phone.
2. Contact the TIGTA – Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and report the call. You can use the IRS Impersonation Scam Report (link) web page or you can call 800-366-4484.
3. Report it to the Federal Trade Commission using FTC Complaint Assistant, adding “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

It’s unfortunate that awareness is needed for this or any sort of scam out there. I hope this helps to bring light to this scam and that they get reported in hopes to stop the scammers. We all love modern technology but unfortunately, so do criminals that are constantly using it to their advantage. 

*This information was taken from https://www.irs.gov/  in an effort to bring awareness to this ongoing problem.  For more information on this scam and the complete article click: IRS Wraps Up the "Dirty Dozen" List of Tax Scams for 2016.