My office has received numerous phone calls regarding a phone scam plaguing residents. Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license. After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the Homeland Security, local police or Department of Motor Vehicle.

According to the IRS Website:

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:
If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040.
The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue – if there really is such an issue.

If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

The IRS encourages taxpayers to be vigilant against phone and email scams that use the IRS as a lure. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels. The IRS also does not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message. Instead, forward the e-mail to [email protected].

More information on how to report phishing scams involving the IRS is available on the genuine IRS website, IRS.gov.

(YWN Desk – NYC)