The Caller Threatened To Arrest You

 Your phone rings. You check the caller ID. You don’t recognize the number. So, you let the call go to voicemail. Then you listen to the message. It’s a woman’s voice informing you that must call the number immediately. You’re skeptical of course, but the voice sounded convincing.

You call the number back but instead of getting the women who left the message on your voicemail you hear, “IRS, Tax Fraud Division, how may I help you?”

“You’re the what now?”, you reply.

“Sir, this is the IRS, did you receive a call from us?”, they counter.

“Well, I did receive a call, but wasn’t sure who is was from…what’s this all about?”, you ask.

Then like a well-oiled machine, the scam begins.

As it turns out they really don’t know anything about you except the number they called, but like any scam, they will keep fishing until they have you hooked.

“Sir, the reason for our call is that even though you do pay your taxes, our auditing department found errors in your records. And these errors need to be settled today. And due to the amount of the discrepancy if they aren’t paid today we will be sending a local sheriff to arrest you. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”, the IRS person informs you.

You’re bewildered as to how this has happened. Not only do they say you owe money but you might be arrested.

So you ask, “how much do I owe?”

The voice on the other side informs you that due to miscalculations in tax filings over a course of 5 years you now owe over $5,800.

“$5,800!”, you exclaim.

Now the voice tries to calm you a bit a tells you that you won’t be arrested if you can follow some instructions and if you do, then the sheriff is called off and your tax matter is cleared up.

So you say okay and listen.

Now the agent is asking you if there is a local Target or Walgreens store nearby. You say there is and the agent says something that completely baffles you.

Sir, I want you to go to Walgreens and get iTunes gift cards in the amount of what you owe. Then read to us the numbers on the back each of the cards. Once we verify the validity of such cards then we clear your debt and discharge your arrest warrant.

In some cases, the caller demands that you and he stay connected via a mobile phone during the whole process. Or that you will be immediately arrested if the call is disconnected.

3 Things You Should Know…

• The real Internal Revenue Service does not call people.
• They don’t threaten to arrest you if you can’t pay right away.
• They will never ask you to pay what you owe using a gift card.

These scams originate from other countries and the person calling typically speaks with a foreign accent. They call thousands of numbers a day fishing for that one person who they can hook and scam out of money. By asking for gift cards they essentially are bypassing security protocols typical credit cards and banking institutions offer. Once you spend your money on a gift card, then share that gift card number to a stranger they can then can use those numbers and take your money.

So why do I share this information with you?

I share it to give you a deeper insight on how this IRS Tax Scam works. I share it in hopes to help you avoid getting scammed and becoming a victim.