With the onset of tax filing season this year, tax scam artists are active once again. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has circulated warnings to stay alert of sham phone calls or emails posing as the IRS. These tax scam fraudsters are issuing mails to taxpayers’ names and asking them to file tax returns. Tax scams conducted via phone have already made a profit of about 15 million across the United States, according to the IRS. That’s why IRS has increased their efforts to curtail these phony tax return phone calls and email baits. They are applying a filter procedure to scan and detect people who are filing multiple tax returns from a single computer. But, there are several types of IRS scam attempts tax fraudsters are employing that are difficult to detect in this filtering process.

To help prevent taxpayers falling for those scam attacks, IRS cautions of common ploys being played by these scam artists currently and how they can identify these tax fraud attempts.

Fraudsters are calling as the IRS agents      

IRS has put on an alert on how tax scam artists are faking as real agents and calling taxpayers by their names. IRS issued a fraud alert message this week which stated that these IRS imposters

“use fake names, provide bogus IRS badge numbers and alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS is calling”.

They are demanding tax payments of the previous year and furthermore, threatening taxpayers that they will issue an immediate arrest warrant if they do not pay the cash without any delay. They appear more aggressive, use offensive language and act extremely persuasive until victims give in to their demands and ready to pay the large tax amount which can be of thousands of dollars. Usually, scam artists force them to make payments either via wire transfer or instant prepaid debit card payments.

The IRS advised taxpayers to remember these tips to distinguish and protect against tax scams –

  • The IRS communicates tax problems by issuing a letter via U.S. mail.
  • The IRS agents do not call
  • The IRS do not press or issue a lawsuit nor arrest warrant on failure of immediate payments.

Taxpayers must hang up any calls where callers supposedly pose as the IRS. They can verify if the calls came from real IRS agency by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-1040. Know more about IRS phone scams and signs to identify IRS scam artists.