by Renee Plant
Between gathering pertinent documents and scheduling appointments with consultants, it’s no question tax season can be stressful, and now there’s a new factor adding confusion and anxiety to the equation: IRS tax scammers.
These individuals criminally pose as IRS agents, seeking out personal information by phone or email, advising them they owe the IRS money. According to Norwood Police Chief William G. Brooks III, scammers are taking advantage of people’s lack of awareness about the IRS, and are using it to make a quick buck.
“The [phone scams] start with a phone call from someone saying they are with the IRS, and that the person [they’ve called] owes back taxes,” Chief Brooks said. “First off, the IRS will never call you by phone. If you really owed them money, they would send you a letter.”
But the scamming doesn’t end there. Should the contacted individual become compliant with the caller, further steps may be suggested and/or taken to commit more serious fraud.
“Often, the caller tells the person to go buy a gift card or ‘green dot’ card, and then calls back to hear what the numbers on the card are,” Chief Brooks said. “Once you read the numbers to the person on the phone, they can spend down the card without ever possessing it. So, secondly, the IRS would never ask a citizen to pay back taxes with a gift card.”
The callers are accustomed to scamming unknowing victims for information, and therefore can be quite persuasive, leading individuals to believe the calls are legitimate. However, the police department encourages recipients of such calls to not engage as more time spent on the phone means more opportunities for the scammers to obtain information and collect money.
Another form of identity theft is also taking place over the Internet in what is referred to as “phishing” - a term used when scammers attempt to gain consumers’ financial information in order to steal their identity and assets through email. These scam emails can be very convincing, and may include the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo. A consumer alert issued by the IRS indicates there was an approximate 400 percent surge in phishing and malware incidents in the 2016 tax season.
Further, the IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through email. Unsolicited emails claiming to be from the IRS, or from an IRS-related component such as EFTPS, should be reported to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.
While there is an emphasis on getting the word out during tax season, Chief Brooks said the IRS scams are not season-dependent, and can occur at any time during the year. However, if residents do receive these phone calls or emails, they are encouraged to inform the police department - regardless of the time of year.
“Good and easy rule of thumb: if you receive a call from the IRS, just hang up,” Chief Brooks said.