Consumer Alert
It’s the IRS calling…or is it?
Here at the FTC, we think about scams all day long. What are the scammers’ new angles? How can we keep ahead of them? We hear from people about the scams they see, and we turn that into tips people use to spot and avoid scams.
But scammers find FTC staff, just as they find the rest of America. My colleagues and I have even gotten calls on our work phones, offering reduced credit card interest rates, or claiming to be tech support calling about problems with our computers. We also get the calls at home. In fact, someone claiming to work for the IRS called my house just last week:
This has all the signs of an IRS imposter scam. In fact, the IRS won’t call out of the blue to ask for payment, won’t demand a specific form of payment, and won’t leave a message threatening to sue you if you don’t pay right away. Have you gotten a bogus IRS call like this? If you did, report the call to the FTC and to TIGTA – include the phone number it came from, along with any details you have.
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In reply to btw a couple of month ago, by Enough of It
Please report your experience at ftc.gov/complaint so it becomes part of the FTC database that's used by investigators nationwide. Add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments section. Your complaints help the FTC and other law enforcement agencies bring scam artists to justice.
You also can report the calls to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) at 800-366-4484 or online.
I receive such messages every year, the scammers are getting smarter evry year, this year the accents have been replaced by an automated robo american voice thretening of a legal law suite. i tell them i work for govt and fbi was right outside their door, that their mom was crying in heaven to see the son rip people off their money for a living, boy it has those guys yelling at the top of their voices.My kids have fun and call the number a few more times asking them to find a decent job and after a few times they disconnect the number.
i just had the same message from 973 area code call such ridiculous messages scammers hack into phones, computers, even had an fbi virus looking or hacking into web cam once and taking over pictures in the computer, which were nature pictures. I was told on complaining that fbi virus takes over and some guys then demaned ransom from folks depending on what people store in computers.