Delaware News

Attorney General Denn Urges Delaware Taxpayers To Be On Guard Against IRS Phone Scams

News | Date Posted: Friday, April 1, 2016



With tax season upon us, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice is receiving a high volume of consumer complaints relating to IRS phone scams.

In a typical IRS phone scam, a caller pretends to work for the Internal Revenue Service (or sometimes the U.S. Treasury Department), and tells the intended victim that the IRS will imminently be filing suit against the victim, or threatens the intended victim with arrest or some other kind of punishment, and the only way to avoid the lawsuit or arrest is to immediately pay a sum of money, usually via a pre-paid debit card or a money order.

“These scammers claim that the person answering the call has unpaid taxes that must be paid immediately to avoid a lawsuit or arrest,” says Attorney General Matt Denn. “They use aggressive language and threaten dire consequences—such as jail time, loss of employment, or deportation—if the victim doesn’t immediately pay up.”

The Internal Revenue Service says that these scammers often spoof the telephone number to disguise where they are calling from, and they sometimes manipulate the caller ID information so it seems like the call is coming from the IRS. They may even give out a fake IRS badge number, and may even know the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security number and try to use that information to gain a victim’s trust.

As a reminder, the IRS will never reach out to a taxpayer with an initial contact by telephone, nor will the IRS demand credit or debit card payment over the telephone, or demand that you pay a tax bill in a specific manner.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) announced that it had received reports of more than one million IRS phone scam calls since October 2013, and is aware of more than 5,500 victims who have collectively paid approximately $29 million to these scammers.

Attorney General Denn urges consumers to ignore these calls and not return voicemail messages. Consumers should instead do the following:

• If you are worried that the call might be real, because you owe federal taxes, or think you might owe federal taxes, hang up and call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040. IRS workers there will be able to help you with any payment questions.

• Report the scam to federal authorities: fill out the “IRS Impersonation scam” form on TIGTA’s website, or call TIGTA at 800-366-4484, and also consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments in your complaint).

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Attorney General Denn Urges Delaware Taxpayers To Be On Guard Against IRS Phone Scams

News | Date Posted: Friday, April 1, 2016



With tax season upon us, the Consumer Protection Unit of the Delaware Department of Justice is receiving a high volume of consumer complaints relating to IRS phone scams.

In a typical IRS phone scam, a caller pretends to work for the Internal Revenue Service (or sometimes the U.S. Treasury Department), and tells the intended victim that the IRS will imminently be filing suit against the victim, or threatens the intended victim with arrest or some other kind of punishment, and the only way to avoid the lawsuit or arrest is to immediately pay a sum of money, usually via a pre-paid debit card or a money order.

“These scammers claim that the person answering the call has unpaid taxes that must be paid immediately to avoid a lawsuit or arrest,” says Attorney General Matt Denn. “They use aggressive language and threaten dire consequences—such as jail time, loss of employment, or deportation—if the victim doesn’t immediately pay up.”

The Internal Revenue Service says that these scammers often spoof the telephone number to disguise where they are calling from, and they sometimes manipulate the caller ID information so it seems like the call is coming from the IRS. They may even give out a fake IRS badge number, and may even know the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security number and try to use that information to gain a victim’s trust.

As a reminder, the IRS will never reach out to a taxpayer with an initial contact by telephone, nor will the IRS demand credit or debit card payment over the telephone, or demand that you pay a tax bill in a specific manner.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (“TIGTA”) announced that it had received reports of more than one million IRS phone scam calls since October 2013, and is aware of more than 5,500 victims who have collectively paid approximately $29 million to these scammers.

Attorney General Denn urges consumers to ignore these calls and not return voicemail messages. Consumers should instead do the following:

• If you are worried that the call might be real, because you owe federal taxes, or think you might owe federal taxes, hang up and call the IRS directly at 1-800-829-1040. IRS workers there will be able to help you with any payment questions.

• Report the scam to federal authorities: fill out the “IRS Impersonation scam” form on TIGTA’s website, or call TIGTA at 800-366-4484, and also consider filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments in your complaint).

image_printPrint


Graphic that represents delaware news on a mobile phone

Keep up to date by receiving a daily digest email, around noon, of current news release posts from state agencies on news.delaware.gov.

Here you can subscribe to future news updates.