IRS Phone Scam Warning in Manassas: Police

MANASSAS, VA — The city police department has provided a warning to residents about IRS scams that tend to pop up this time of the year, when spring grows near and so does tax season.

There's this, from the Federal Trade Commission:

• Don’t believe callers, emails or texts that say they are from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), even if they threaten to have you arrested for noncompliance. Tax identity thieves may send phony “phishing” emails that appear to be from the IRS and ask you to click on a link.
• They may also directly ask you to provide or confirm your personal information online or over the phone. Don’t do it!
• The IRS does not email, call, or text people to get personal information. If the IRS needs to contact you, they will do so by mail.
• Another red flag is if the caller asks for payment in the form of prepaid cards or wire transfer. If you have any doubt whether a message is legitimate, call the IRS directly or consult Police or a trusted family member.

And there's this, from the Internal Revenue Service:

Characteristics of the scam include:

• Scammers use fake names and IRS badge numbers. They generally use common names and surnames to identify themselves.
• Scammers may be able to recite the last four digits of a victim’s Social Security Number.
• Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling.
• Scammers sometimes send bogus IRS emails to some victims to support their bogus calls.
• Victims hear background noise of other calls being conducted to mimic a call site.
• After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:

• 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 bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.
• You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.” If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.

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