Top 6 Tax Scams and How to Protect Yourself

No. 3: Telephone scams

Over the past years, the IRS has registered an increased frequency of telephone scams across the US. Typically, the caller will pretend to be calling on behalf of the IRS and will try to scam the respondent by asking for their social security number or other important data. Never release any important information over the phone and if you happen to get a call by someone pretending to be the IRS, make sure you contact the agency immediately and report the incident. Here is how IRS summarizes these scams:

“These phone scams include many variations, ranging from instances from where callers say the victims owe money or are entitled to a huge refund. Some calls can threaten arrest and threaten a driver’s license revocation. Sometimes these calls are paired with follow-up calls from people saying they are from the local police department or the state motor vehicle department.

Characteristics of these scams can include:

• Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
• Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security Number.
• Scammers “spoof” or imitate the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling.
• Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
• Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.

After threatening victims with jail time or a driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.”