IRS warns Merced County residents about scams

It started Tuesday with a string of threatening phone calls from someone claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service.

“This last one said, ‘We’re going to turn this in to the courts since you won’t respond to our phone calls,’ ” Atwater resident Wayne Wallace said.

The 79-year-old wasn’t returning the calls because he knew it was a scam. “The IRS doesn’t do things like that on the phone,” he said. “They send you a letter and all that stuff.”

That scam and others like it are common and they tend to come in waves, according to IRS spokesman Raphael Tulino.

“Our normal first correspondence with a taxpayer is a letter in the mail, not a random threatening phone call,” he said. “Certainly, under no circumstances do we call and demand immediate tax payment.”

The IRS routinely warns taxpayers to stay vigilant against an increase in recent years of IRS impersonation scams in automated calls and emails, and new tactics from scammers demanding payments on gift cards, according to a statement from the IRS.

The robo-calls often include urgent callback requests telling taxpayers to call back to settle their “tax bill,” according to the IRS. Fake calls generally claim to be the last warning before legal action is taken. Once the victim calls back, the scammers may threaten to arrest, deport or revoke the driver’s license of the victim if they don’t agree to pay.

“It used to be that most of these bogus calls would come from a live person. Scammers are evolving and using more and more automated calls in an effort to reach the largest number of victims possible,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in a statement. “Taxpayers should remain alert ... and watch for clear warning signs as these scammers change tactics.”

Requests that taxpayers settle a tax bill by putting money on any form of gift card is a clear indication of a scam, according to the IRS.

Here are tips from the IRS:

• Do not give any information. Hang up immediately.
• Contact the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to report the call. Use their “IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting” web page or call 800-366-4484.
• Report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Use the “FTC Complaint Assistant” on FTC.gov. Add “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.
• If you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS directly at 800-829-1040.

This story was originally published November 24, 2016 at 2:09 PM with the headline "IRS warns Merced County residents about scams."