Long Beach Police Warn Residents of IRS Phone Scam

The Long Beach Police recently issued a warning to local residents of phone scams reported in the area.

The scam involves a caller pretending to be from the International Revenue Service (IRS) and threatening the victim with immediate official government action including arrest, or promising rewards such as large tax returns unless they send payment by unrecoverable, untraceable means such as gift cards, Green Dot money packs, or Apple iTunes cards.

These scammers can be incredibly convincing as they often know the name and the last 4 digits of the social security of the victims, according to police.

The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information. This includes any type of electronic communication, such as text messages and social media channels.

They also do not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message. Instead, forward the email to phishing@irs.gov.

Police offer the following advice to those who may have received one of these calls:

• If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.

• If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some threats as described above), then call and report the incident to TIGTA at 1.800.366.4484.

• You can file a complaint using the website https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.” If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.