Over the past
several days we have received messages from many clients informing us
that they received telephone calls stating that they were under criminal
investigation by the IRS. These messages did not use the name of the
taxpayer involved. The callers said that they were filing suit and
providing a different telephone number to call them back.
THIS
IS A SCAM and no calls should be returned. The IRS does NOT call
taxpayers on their phones nor do they send emails. All correspondence
initiated by the IRS in these matters are handled through the United
States Postal Service.
Do not respond to any of these inquiries.
Please see the article below for more information or feel free to contact your KOS advisor if you have any questions.
Tax Scammers Up Ante With Robocalls
Posted By Sid Kirchheimer
In
the four months since it made history as “the largest scam of its
kind,” a now infamous IRS imposter telephone scam has escalated with a
recent new spin.
As fraudsters continue to pose as agents with
that agency or the U.S. Treasury Department in “live” calls that
threaten arrest or deportation, along with the seizure of property,
businesses and driver’s licenses, they’ve recently upped the ante to now
also incorporate robocalls in this widespread ruse.
Either way,
the story is the same: Scammers allege, often with abusive language,
that phone call recipients owe money for back taxes and threaten drastic
action if not immediately paid by Green Dot MoneyPak prepaid debit
cards or wire transfer – payment methods the real IRS doesn’t request.
Still, this scam remains as convincing as it is intimidating.
To
make their threats appear authentic, many incoming calls fool
recipients’ caller ID to display the IRS toll-free phone number –
800-829-1040.
The scammers, who may have foreign accents, cite
common all-American names and badge numbers – John Smith, Sean White and
Jason Clark are recent examples used.
But their most alarming
(and fear-invoking) ploy is their ability to accurately cite the last
four digits of some targets’ Social Security numbers. Officials have no
public explanation on how the fraudsters obtained that information for
this scam, which started last fall.
Hang up on these taxmen
tricksters, and you can expect a follow-up email with similar threats –
or another phone call in which the same or another imposter uses a
different name, this time posing as local law enforcement and
threatening impending arrest for failure to pay the supposedly owed
money.
That’s what recently happened to Tim Leslie of Minnesota,
who received a call from alleged IRS agent Sean White. The caller
claimed that Leslie improperly filed his taxes and that unless he
settled the debt, “one copy of this case will be sent to your local
sheriff department and one copy will be sent to your employer where you
work right now to inform them of your fraudulent activity.”
Here’s
the rub: Leslie is currently chief deputy of a sheriff’s department and
seeking election to be county sheriff. He called a friend who works as
an IRS agent, and an agency investigator told him that some 60,000
Americans have been contacted in this fast-moving scam, “and some folks
lost over $10,000 to these people,” Leslie told Minnesota TV station
KARE.
That’s a threefold increase in reported contacts since
March, when Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)
Russell George issued a renewed warning about this calling scam. At that
time, frightened taxpayers had already paid at least $1 million to
scammers.
What to do if you contacted by tax imposters?
Despite
possible frightening but fraudulent follow-up contact, hang up on phone
calls and report the incident to the TIGTA (phone: 800-366-4484)
and Federal Trade Commission, which also issued a recent warning about
this scam.
If you receive an email purporting to be from the IRS
or Treasury Department, forward it to phishing@irs.gov without clicking
on any links or attachments, which may unleash malware. Neither agency
ever sends unsolicited emails to taxpayers.
If you really owe
taxes or there’s been a problem with filing your returns, the IRS will
notify you by U.S. mail – not telephone. If you get a letter, call the
IRS at 800-829-1040. Do not respond to callback numbers provided in
robocalls.
Know that the IRS doesn’t seek payment by prepaid
debit card or wire transfer. But scammers prefer those methods because
they are hard to trace and can be redeemed anywhere in the world.
Occasionally,
scammers in this ruse may ask for credit card payment, but don’t be
fooled: The IRS doesn’t request plastic payments by telephone.
If
scammers recite a portion of your SSN, consider placing a fraud alert
or security freeze on your credit file with the three major credit
reporting bureaus to reduce risk of identity theft.
