IRS phone scammers continue ‘threatening’ calls

Warning signs and what to do

Here are five tell-tale signs the call is a scam. Legitimate IRS employees would never:

• Call about taxes you owe without first mailing an official notice.

• Demand you pay taxes without an opportunity to question or appeal the amount.

• Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.

• Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

• Threaten to have law enforcement agencies arrest you for not paying.

What to do if you do get a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and asking for money:

• If you know or think you owe taxes, call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to get help with a payment issue.

• If you don’t owe taxes, report the call to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 800-366-4484 or tigta.gov.

• If you’ve been targeted by the scam, also notify the Federal Trade Commission. Click on ‘Consumer complaint’ at FTC.gov, and add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

— Source: IRS

The woman on the line told Juin Thomas she was from the IRS, that Thomas owed back taxes and that if she didn’t pay immediately the police would come to her door.

Thomas heard other people talking in the background, and the caller even recited a “badge number.”

“It sounded so legit,” said Thomas, a Lawrence retiree. “It took me a little while to figure out it was a scam.”

Thomas, who got the suspicious call this week, is not the only consumer IRS phone scammers are targeting. Despite media attention and IRS warnings about such scams in recent months, officials say similar calls keep rolling in to households nationwide.

The Kansas Attorney General’s Office continues to hear from residents across the state reporting suspected IRS scams, spokeswoman Jennifer Rapp said.

Consumers should report them to the Department of the Treasury’s integrity hotline, 800-366-4484, Rapp said. She said the Kansas Attorney General’s Office has been referring callers to the hotline, at the request of the IRS.

The IRS described a typical call this way:

Callers, who may know a lot about you, may demand money or say you have a refund due and try to trick you into sharing private information. They usually alter the caller ID to make it look like the IRS is calling, use fake names and bogus IRS identification badge numbers. If you don’t answer, they often leave an “urgent” callback request.

“We urge people not to be deceived by these threatening phone calls,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in a news release. “We have formal processes in place for people with tax issues. The IRS respects taxpayer rights, and these angry, shake-down calls are not how we do business.”

Fortunately, Thomas said, she did not share bank account information or comply with the caller’s instructions to send money.

But before her red flags went up she did give out some information, including her cellphone number — which the scammers called back twice. She had a mistake on her taxes last year and worried maybe it hadn’t been resolved after all, and the thought of the police coming after her was scary.

“Fear kicks in,” Thomas said.

Lawrence retiree Carlotta Liska also got a call this week, her second this year.

Liska said she normally doesn’t answer her home phone unless she hears a familiar voice begin to leave a voicemail. When she heard a recording from the IRS, though, she almost picked up.

The robotic female voice said the IRS had received a legal petition against her concerning tax evasion and that she needed to call back to resolve it before it went to federal court.

“It was a recorded voice so I couldn’t ask any questions,” Liska said. “That was my first red light.”

Thomas and Liska worry it would be easy for others, especially older residents, to fall prey to the scam.

“That’s my concern,” Thomas said. “And I’m kind of appalled at it, too.”