During filing season, we see a surge in scam phone calls threatening such things as arrest, deportation and license revocation if the victim doesn\u2019t pay a bogus tax bill. In a new twist being seen in recent weeks, identity thieves file fraudulent tax returns with refunds going into the real taxpayer\u2019s bank account \u2013 followed by a phone call trying to con the taxpayer to send the money to the scammer.<\/p>\n
Con artists make unsolicited calls claiming to be IRS officials. They demand that the victim pay a bogus tax bill. They convince the victim to send cash, usually through a wire transfer or a prepaid debit card or gift card. They may also leave \u201curgent\u201d callback requests through phone \u201crobo-calls,\u201d or send a phishing email.<\/p>\n
\nRobert Mobley said, “many phone scams use threats to intimidate and bully a victim into paying. They may even threaten to arrest, deport or revoke the driver\u2019s license of their victim if they don\u2019t get the money.”<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Scammers often alter caller ID numbers to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling. The callers use IRS employee titles and fake badge numbers to appear legitimate. They may use the victim\u2019s name, address and other personal information to make the call sound official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cook & Co. Tax Advisors reminds taxpayers to be careful with continuing aggressive phone scams as criminals pose as IRS agents in hopes of stealing money. These phone calls remain a major threat to taxpayers especially during the 2018 filing season. During filing season, we see a surge in scam phone calls threatening such things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2018-03-06T16:27:22Z","apple_news_api_id":"a53d2f4a-7766-4827-a15d-ab44c243d39d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2018-03-06T16:27:24Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ApT0vSndmSCehXatEwkPTnQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":["https:\/\/news-api.apple.com\/sections\/74d71b26-dfe2-3cf6-9b79-55911f8259f1"],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tax"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookco.us\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}