IRS Phone Scam Swamps Chappaqua

New Castle police say the community is experiencing a wave of attempted phone scams following the IRS pattern.

Each person filing a report with the police said they had received a phone call from a person saying he or shee was with the Internal Revenue Service calling about back taxes. The caller threatened that if the alleged back taxes were not paid immediately, the victim or their spouse would be arrested in a few hours.

New Castle police recommend: hang up.

It’s easy to tell it’s a scam. The IRS:

• won’t call about taxes without mailing an official notice first
• won’t demand payment without allowing you room to question or appeal the amount
• won’t mandate you use a specific payment method
• ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone
• threaten to bring in local law enforcement to arrest you for non-payment

Remember, too, the IRS does not use email, text messages or any social media to discuss your personal tax issue.

The IRS asks people who are called by these criminals to report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at1.800.366.4484 or at www.tigta.gov. Also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov. Please add “IRS Telephone Scam” to the comments of your complaint.

For more information on reporting tax scams, go to www.irs.gov and type “scam” in the search box.

There are other phone scams including the one in which the caller pretends to be a law enforcement official announcing that a relative is being held in jail and asking you to pay bail.

No law enforcement agency does that, nor do they put “crying relatives” on the phone to ask you to do it, New Castle police said.