A convincing scam has impacted thousands of taxpayers in the U.S.
Scammers who claim to be representatives from the Internal Revenue Service are calling taxpayers and demanding payments. This has been confirmed through a statement released by the IRS.
The scammers even have been able to make it appear when calling, that they are from the IRS.
Through mid August of this year, the Tax Administration had taken over 90,000 complaints about the scam.
Over 1,000 people who have been victimized have lost over $5 million through this scam. Those are the only ones to be identified, as many others are thought to be too embarrassed to admit they had been scammed.
The commissioner of the IRS John Koskinen said if the IRS was going to contact an individual about something tax related their first attempt in communicating is not via the telephone, but through official correspondence, they send through the mail.
One red flag regarding the calls, said Koskinen is the tone of the voice of the caller becoming increasingly more angry and threatening, who say they represent the IRS and urge immediate payment.
Generally, the scammers use fake badge numbers and fake names. They use names and surnames that are common.
They likely can recite the last four digits of the person’s Social Security Number they are talking to.
They can sometimes send emails that look like they are from the IRS to support their phone calls.
Victims often report hearing background noise like other calls to mimic the site.
After threatening their victims with revoking a driver’s license or with jail time, the scammers hang up and then call back playing the role of a DMV agent of the local police and the caller ID shows that.
Several possible victims have said they received calls from 202-609-7070.
