Peabody Police Officer Trolls IRS Scammer

PEABODY, MA – An IRS scammer dialed the wrong number Thursday, reaching a Peabody police officer who wouldn't let him off the hook until he had a few laughs.

According to a post on the Peabody Police Department's Facebook page, the officer received a call on his department phone from "Kevin from the IRS," telling him there's a warrant for his arrest and he'll be taken into custody unless he pays.

"So I play along until they catch on, and I tell them I am the police and one day, somehow, I will come for them," the unidentified officer wrote on Facebook. "Well that's when their language skills entered the gutter."

Using his police 10-21 app, the officer proceeded to call "Kevin" back 20 times in a row, pushing the scammer to his boiling point.

Eventually, the officer decided merely aggravating "Kevin" wasn't going to to be enough, so he wrote that he called the scammers back and indulged them on their scheme.

The scammers told the officer they wanted $1985, to be paid in gift cards. After demanding either a $1000 Target or iTunes gift card, they accused the officer of not cooperating.

The officer countered by agreeing to scratch off the activation code on a gift card. The code he read to them: "URAIDIOT."

"It went south from there," the officer wrote in the post. The scammers reportedly threatened the officer's wife and mother, but ultimately took their phone number offline.

IRS scams are not uncommon in the area, and police frequently warn residents to never give out any personal information over the phone. If there is a question as to the representative's legitimacy, police say to call the agency and ask if the person works there.

In the meantime, the officer's actions have hopefully prompted "Kevin" to seek another line of work.

"PPD 1, Bad Guys 0," the officer wrote.

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