Con artists posing as IRS agents or collection agencies working for the IRS continue to make telephone calls and send snail mail and email letters in an attempt to scam money from unsuspecting taxpayers.
These unscrupulous individuals typically accuse their targets of tax fraud and threaten them with arrest, deportation, and/or revocation of their drivers’ or business licenses if they fail to pay a (bogus) tax bill.
Another scam involves operation of a fake tax preparer office or website. All commercial tax preparer firms should have an IRS ID number that you can check with the IRS. Note, this doesn’t guarantee the company’s work – but at least you know you’re dealing with someone the IRS has heard of.
Identity thieves are also stealing tax return data from tax preparers and then filing fraudulent tax returns. After a refund is deposited into the real taxpayer’s bank account, the scammer calls the taxpayer to demand return of the “erroneous” refund.
The fact that you actually have had a deposit made into your bank account makes you more likely to believe the call is legitimate. When calling, the thief may pretend to be from the IRS, a collection agency or law enforcement.
Scammers may use IRS employee titles and fake badge numbers and may change caller ID numbers to make it appear as though the IRS or another government agency is calling. To convince you the call is legitimate, they may use your name, address and other personal information, which is easy to acquire from a variety of resources. Letters and emails usually have realistic IRS logos and sometimes provide a link to a real IRS webpage, “How Criminal Investigations Are Initiated.”
Real IRS agents will not angrily demand payment over the phone, ask for credit/debit card numbers over the phone, require you to use a specific method of payment (certainly not a gift card), threaten arrest, deportation or license revocation, or call about taxes owed without having first mailed you a bill. They will always provide you with an opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.
Do not use any contact information that has been provided to you in the call or on the documents you received. Scammers have been known to mix real contact information in with the fake, so don’t assume that if the address checks out, the phone number is real.
If you think the communication might actually be from the IRS, call its real phone number, 1-800-829-1040. If the person is claiming to be from another government office, call a phone number you look up for yourself in the telephone book or on the official government website.
Be careful when you’re looking up information on the Internet. Make sure you’ve found the official government site you’re looking for. In many cases, nongovernmental sites have moved to the top of the search results list due to high traffic, and the real government site is farther down the list. Always check the URL when doing a search.
Note that the IRS’s real website is IRS.gov. Don’t be fooled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org or other designation.
The IRS website provides information on how to determine whether it’s really the IRS contacting you, as well as descriptions of known scams.
If you’re sure you’re the target of a tax-related scam, report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 1-800-366-4484 or its IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting webpage.
All scams should be reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well. Call 1-877-FTC-HELP or use the FTC Complaint Assistant.
Note that scammers don’t just pretend to be from the IRS. They frequently send notices indicating that you need to pay them to handle trademark renewals and filings for corporations and LLCs. Other scams involve emails about URLs from those claiming to be offshore domain registrars.
Please feel free to contact us if you receive any suspicious letters, emails or phone calls.
