Guilford Police Caution Residents Over IRS Scams

Shared and written by the Guilford Police Department:

Dozens of complaints were called in over the last few days regarding IRS phone scams. Many reported the number 281-826-5097 was displayed on their caller ID and scammers identified themselves as IRS agents calling to collect on a debt.

These scammers were primarily targeting older Americans, newly arrived immigrants and those who speak English as a second language. However, they have grow their criminal enterprise and have expanded to anyone that will answer the phone or the scam letters.

As we have said before, the IRS will not cold call you for debts. The numbers that show on your caller ID can and are spoofed, which means they can make it look like they are actually calling from the IRS through a computer program or app.

They will send letters that look legitimate, but are crafted and photo shopped by talented criminals. If you do receive a letter or email, call the number for the IRS that is listed on their website, 1-800-829-1040, to confirm the letter is valid. Do not call the number on the letter if it does not match the website.

Over 600,000 fraudulent IRS calls, emails and letters were reported last year. Of that 600,000, roughly 4,000 were scammed out of 20 million dollars. Many more victims did not report the loss either because they believed the transaction was real, they were embarrassed, or they were afraid they would get in trouble due to immigration status.

Please share this post with your friends and family. Talk to those you know that are not on social media who could fall victim to this type of scam. It is far better to know about it and protect yourself or others than try to recover the loss of money after the fact.

You can report these calls here on the IRS and FTC websites:

https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#&panel1-1

Below is advice from the IRS on what to do when you receive a fraudulent call, email or letter:

https://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Phone-Scams-Continue-to-be-a-Serious-Threat,-Remain-on-IRS-Dirty-Dozen-List-of-Tax-Scams-for-the-2016-Filing-Season