IRS Telephone Scammers Ramping Up Efforts

Just hang up.

That’s Police Chief David A. Paprota’s advice for anyone who receives a call from someone claiming to be from the Internal Revenue Service.

“While telephone and computer scams, both national and international and of all types, have become a daily occurrence and are only limited by the level of creativity and deceptive of the scammer, there appears to be a heightened level of the IRS telephone scam being attempted today,” the chief said on Monday.

The scam involves a caller attempting to sound official and authoritative, claiming to be an IRS representative, Paprota said.

“False threats are made stating that the potential victim will be arrested if he or she does not forward an immediate payment,” the chief said.

The IRS would go through a lengthy process of legitimate official notifications over a period of time if there was a problem, he said.

“A vast majority of the scam calls are coming from locations in other countries and unfortunately continue because victims do, in too many cases, forward payments in the false belief the call may be legitimate,” Paprota said. “Unfortunately, over the past three years there have been several cases investigated to no successful conclusion involving the loss of tens of thousands of dollars to scammers.” -

Photo credit: Lacey Township Police Department