With tax season upon us, it should be no surprise to hear that Hermiston citizens are starting to receive scam calls related to taxes.
On Wednesday, the Hermiston Police Department fielded multiple calls from citizens reporting that they received a message from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In most cases, a message is left advising recipients that they owe money to the IRS and need to contact them using a specified phone number to resolve the issue. The message is similar to “Hello, we have been trying to reach you. This call is officially a final notice from the IRS, Internal Revenue Service. The reason of this call is to inform you that IRS is filing a lawsuit against you.”
Had there been a real issue with the IRS, they would have contacted you using a certain protocol, usually starting with a letter regarding the issue.
Still in doubt? Here are four reasons to know it is NOT the Internal Revenue Service:
• When you have a tax problem, the IRS will first contact you by mail, not by phone.
• The IRS won’t threaten arrest, deportation or loss of a driver’s license.
• The IRS won’t demand that you make payment right away.
• The IRS won’t ask you to wire money, pay with a prepaid money card, or ask you to share credit card information over the phone.
Despite our best efforts, scam artists do manage to perpetrate this scam to unsuspecting people, stealing hundreds, if not, thousands of their hard-earned money every day. (Check out this article about the IRS scam and a former NFL player victim.)
For more information on IRS imposter scam, tax identity theft, and other scams visit the IRS website.
