Your phone rings and it’s someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service. Worryingly, they say the police will knock on your door in a few minutes if you don’t pay your taxes right away.
Don’t love it. It’s not the IRS contacting you.
Since 2018, more than 75,000 victims have lost $28 million to scammers impersonating the IRS by phone, email, text and more.
That’s according to data from the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces consumer protection laws, including anti-fraud laws. The real number is almost certainly higher, including reports to other agencies and unreported victims. And there are many other completely different types of tax fraud, such as fake tax preparers and tax identity theft.
“Email and text message scams are relentless, and scammers often use tax season as a way to trick people,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a report. last month’s newsletter.
As Tax Day approaches, here’s how the IRS actually contacts taxpayers and how you can spot impostors.
How will the IRS actually contact you?
“If the IRS contacts you, they’ll never contact you first via email or phone — they’ll contact you in writing,” said Christopher Brown, an attorney at the FTC.
ONE a call or a visit usually just happens after a few letters, the IRS says – so unless you’ve skipped a bunch Letters about your unpaid taxes, the caller claiming to be from the IRS may be lying.
IRS will not threaten the police to arrest you or ask you to make an immediate payment with a specific type of payment, such as a prepaid debit card. “It’s a sure sign that it’s a scam,” Brown said.
taxpayers can always ask questions or appeal what they owe, according to the IRS. Caller ID can be spoofed, so don’t think it’s real just because the caller ID says it’s IRS, Brown said.
If you think a caller claiming to be from the IRS could be real, the IRS says you should ask for their name, badge number, and callback number, which you can verify with the Treasury Inspector General. About Tax Administration by calling 1-800-366-4484. You can then call the IRS again or Report scammers here.
What a scam usually looks like
Aggressive and threatening scam phone calls impersonating the IRS been a problem for many years. The caller demands immediate payment, often through a specific payment method, and threatens to arrest, revoke your driver’s license, and even deport you if you fail to pay or provide sensitive personal information. .
Brown says there’s no data on the most common methods of communication specific to IRS impersonation scams, but for government scams in general, phone calls are the most common. .
These scams spread into emails and texts. Called scams and scams respectively, they were introduced this year List of “Dirty Dozen”an IRS campaign to raise awareness of tax scams.
Werfel, the IRS commissioner, said: “People should be extremely wary of unexpected messages like these that can be a trap, especially during tax filing season.
People receive a text or email that says “Your account has been suspended” or “Report unusual activity” with a fake link to resolve the issue. Clicking on a link in a phishing email or message can lead to identity theft or ransomware being installed on your phone or computer.
But scammers are always evolving. “Initially, what we saw was more of a threat with asking you to pay, but then there was a new twist, which was ‘Don’t threaten, be manipulative,'” Brown said.
The newer tactic to lure people in with promises of tax refunds or discounts, Brown said, is often used via email or text message as a scam or scam. But both intimidation and manipulation tactics are still common, and they can be used through any method of contact.
Consumers who are victims of fraudulent impersonators may report them to the IRS or to the FTC.
Regardless of the specifics, here’s a good rule from FTC to detect scams: “The government doesn’t suddenly call people with threats or promises of money.”
