Accounting, Tax Returns & Tax Resolution (828) 256-8059
Accounting, Tax Returns & Tax Resolution (828) 256-8059
Tax News & Alerts: Since October 2013, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has received reports of roughly 290,000 calls from IRS impersonators and has become aware of nearly 3,0000 victims who have collectively paid over $14 million as a result of a phone scam in which individuals make unsolicited calls to taxpayers fraudulently claiming to be IRS officials and demanding that they send cash via prepaid debit cards.
The IRS must work to protect taxpayers by educating them on the numerous schemes employed by criminals posing as IRS employees that attempt to deceive taxpayers into providing their personal financial information or coerce them into paying money on phony tax obligations through wire transfers or preloaded debit cards. One of these schemes, the telephone impersonation scam, continues to be one of TIGTA’s top priorities and has also landed at the top of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. The number of complaints TIGTA has received about this scam continues to climb, cementing its status as the largest, most pervasive impersonation scam in the history of our agency. As of September 1, 2017, more than two million people have reported to TIGTA that they received an impersonation call, and more than 11,500 victims have reported that they have paid the impersonators more than $60 million.
These criminals continuously change their tactics, hoping to ensnare even more victims. According to the victims we have interviewed, scammers demand that the victims immediately pay the money using Apple iTunes® gift cards,14 Target gift cards, prepaid debit cards, wire transfers, Western Union payments, or MoneyGram® payments in order to avoid being immediately arrested. Because of the complexity of the scammers’ call center operations, the telephone impersonation scam will continue to pose a challenge to both the IRS and TIGTA, given that scams such as these are not typically resolved quickly and place a strain on limited IRS and TIGTA resources. Many taxpayers are aware of the impersonation scam through public service announcements and other outreach efforts which, in turn, create other challenges for the IRS when those taxpayers question legitimate IRS employees who are conducting official IRS business. Taxpayers have even threatened employees or called the police because they thought IRS employees were impostors.
TIGTA investigations have resulted in more than 90 individuals being arrested or criminally charged for their involvement in this scam and numerous investigations are still underway. In addition to criminal prosecutions, we have created and instituted an “Advise and Disrupt” strategy to thwart scammers using robo-dialers. Sustained investigative efforts and ongoing outreach to ensure that people do not become victims in the first place are critical to ensure continued success in combating this scam.
As reported by J. Russell George, The Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) October 13,2017
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