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As the April 15 tax deadline approaches the frequency and variety of scams relating to taxes are picking up. A few weeks ago, when I walked into our house after work, Davi (my wife) had a very worried look on her face. “Are we in trouble with the IRS?” she asked. “We got this message and I am nervous.” So I listened to the message and I could understand her concern. The voice, with a thick Indian accent, said that we owed taxes and if we didn’t pay right away there would be serious consequences, even jail and forfeiture of our home and other assets. The caller ID identified the number as the IRS and was from the 703 area code. I told her that the IRS doesn’t call people and demand payment. They send letters before any phone conversations take place. A couple of days later, I read an article in the local paper about this scam and a few days after that, we received 5 more threatening messages, all left one after another, each more ominous than the last.
Preparing and paying taxes is stressful enough, but over the last few years there has been a proliferation of scams taking advantage of that stress. This year, according to a bulletin posted by the IRS here, is one of the worst ever for scams. According to the treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, since October 2013 over 3,000 victims have been scammed out of more than $14 million, just on the scam we got the messages from. There have been over 290,000 reported contacts that have been reported, so the actual number of calls is likely much higher. What makes this so frightening is that your caller ID says the call is coming from the IRS. The folks on the phone are very intimidating and demand payment by pre-paid debit card or wire transfer to avoid penalties and jail time! Three things to always remember, according to the January 22, 2015 bulletin from the IRS:
- The IRS will never call and demand immediate payment. They will always send a bill first and give you the opportunity to appeal the amount.
- The IRS will never require you to use a specific payment method. They will accept a lot of different payment types, including personal checks. They will never ask you for your debit or credit card number over the phone.
- They will never threaten to bring in local police or law enforcement to have you arrested for non-payment.
In addition, the IRS does not use email, texts or social medial to discuss personal tax issues! You will always get a letter first. That is how I knew that the first message was a scam. The IRS won’t send you an email asking you to update your information and never give a charity or other organization your personal information over the phone, unless you initiated the call and verified the number. This goes for stores, charities, banks, lenders and anyone else that calls you and asks for your social security numbers, birth dates or account numbers.
Finally, beware of identity theft. Millions of social security numbers, according to an article on Marketwatch.com, have been breached in just the last year (2014). Crooks have used those numbers to file hundreds of thousands of fraudulent tax returns and claiming tax refunds in the billions of dollars. It can be very frustrating to file your return, only to be told that it has already been filed.
As always, protect your personal information and account numbers with great vigor, never give financial information to a voice on the phone and verify who you are speaking with (for example,try asking for their phone number and then checking who it is registered to before calling back). Taking a few minutes today can avoid months or years of regret and hassles. After all, tax season is stressful enough!
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