IRS Warns Of Bogus Phone Calls

A resident received a call on Wednesday from someone pretending to be from the IRS, then a second call from someone pretending to be an Upper Saddle River cop who said the resident needed to pay the IRS.

Scammers using fake names and IRS badge numbers. “Watch out for fraudsters slipping these official-looking e-mails into inboxes, trying to confuse people at the very time they work on their taxes”.

The Greenfield Police Department is warning residents about an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scam involving a fake police officer.

The Treasury Department said it is the largest, most pervasive scam in IRS history as the scammers usually direct their victims to the closest Walmart to transfer money. With their cover blown and many people no longer picking up the phone, scammers are turning to emails and text messages. The sites may also contain malware that infect taxpayers’ computers and enable cyberthieves to gain access to files or track consumers’ keystrokes to get personal data.

January featured 1,026 phishing and malware incidents, up from 254 during the same month a year ago.

Don’t click on email links that claim you must update your tax records with the IRS, or that there was a processing error with your return.

“Get My Electronic Filing PIN” webpage should be removed “quickly” because it continues to offer the potential for identity theft, an executive at the Tax Foundation wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

“We urge people to use caution when viewing e-mails, receiving telephone calls or getting advice on tax issues because scams can take on many sophisticated forms”, Koskinen said.

Charles Meenehan, who is also a certified public accountant, experienced the scam first-hand. They demand payment over the phone with a prepaid debit card, which is something the real IRS would never do.

If you do find that crooks have your personal or tax information, you can monitor your credit with free tools from myBankrate.