by Meredith M. Griffith
Sounder contributor
It’s tax filing season again, and area scammers seem to think it’s also open season on taxpayers: a time to bilk people of their hard-earned savings, or out of enough sensitive information to steal their identity.
Local residents have been targeted in the past few days. Emergency dispatchers say one day they saw 20 calls from islanders reporting phone scam attempts.
“Obviously they were hitting this county,” said local undersheriff Brent Johnson. “With 20 calls reported in one day, really, you can assume there’s many more.”
The swindlers appear to be working a few different angles. Lopez resident Jasmine Luckhurst said scammers claiming to be the IRS have phoned her house daily, for weeks, until she finally gave them a good sound ticking off.
San Juan Islander Amelia Felton reported receiving multiple text messages claiming to be from Net Spend, the company that works with TurboTax to distribute prepaid cards containing tax refunds. The messages, sent to even her school-aged child, asked her to phone about a “disabled” – and completely imaginary – Net Spend card. And Orcas Islanders Nicole Kraayeveld and Lynn Cunningham reported voicemails threatening a lawsuit by the IRS.
The IRS itself warns against such scams on its website, offering the following tips to avoid becoming a victim:
Scammers make unsolicited phone calls or emails, demanding that victims pay bogus tax bills by sending them cash, most often via a prepaid debit card or wire transfer.
Scammers use threats and intimidation to scare their victims, including threats to arrest, deport or revoke licenses.
Scammers use caller ID spoofing, deviously altering caller ID so that it appears the IRS is actually phoning.
They also may know their victims’ names, addresses, or other personal information.
Scammers try new tricks frequently in order to make their schemes seem official. These tricks may include the use of actual IRS addresses, fake IRS documents in emails, or the use of real IRS letterhead.
Over the past two years, nearly 4,550 victims have paid scammers over $23 million due to these types of scams.
“Everyone’s so afraid of the IRS, and so [scammers] use that fear factor, of, ‘Oh my god! I can’t get audited!’ – They play on that,” explained Johnson. “We need to understand that the IRS are there to do a job, but they do it a certain way, and they will not deviate from those ways, so that’s our protection. They will not call you on the phone to tell you you’re being audited. If you get a message on Facebook, or email, it’s false … They’re not going to be asking you for personal information over the phone.”
The IRS says it will not phone taxpayers and demand immediate payment. The IRS will always send a bill in the mail before making any contact by phone. The IRS will not demand that you pay taxes, while not allowing you to question or appeal the amount you owe. The IRS will not ask for your credit or debit card numbers over the phone, and will not demand that you pay using just one particular payment method. The IRS will also not threaten to involve other agencies, or arrest you for not paying. The agency adds that while scammers once targeted mainly elderly folks, or non-native English speakers, the IRS says they are now broadening their scope to include just about everyone.
Johnson said all the recent citizen reports of tax-related scams have been failed attempts, but a local resident did recently fall victim to a scammer claiming to be representing Microsoft. The person lost $199 and their computer was harmed, as well. The sheriff’s office receives multiple reports of scam attempts every month.
Johnson’s advice to islanders about generally mysterious phone calls?
“Be very observant, very careful. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Slow down, think things through, check it out, make some phone calls. You may get a gut feeling that tells you, ‘This isn’t right.”
The IRS advises people to refuse to give any information to callers identifying as the IRS, and to hang up immediately.
The IRS also asks people to report the attempt to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 800-366-4484 or the IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting web page (https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml). Please also report the attempt to the Federal Trade Commission using the FTC Complaint Assistant at FTC.gov (https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/#&panel1-1), including “IRS Telephone Scam” in your notes.
If you think you may actually owe taxes, you can call the IRS directly at 800-829-1040 and get the real scoop from real IRS employees. The IRS fraud hotline is 1-800-829-0433. For more information, visit “Tax Scams and Consumer Alerts” on IRS.gov. The “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” is also online at https://www.irs.gov/Taxpayer-Bill-of-Rights.
