Robotic voice with an imperious tone? Check. Demand for money? Check. Issuing a threat to make your life miserable? Check. It might well have seemed reasonable to an Ohio man that the voice message he had on his phone was from an authentic Internal Revenue Service agent or at least an automated call from the IRS.
But there were a few giveaways that the message was part of a scam. For one thing, the call identified the IRS as "Internal Revenue Services." The proper agency name isn't plural; it's simply Internal Revenue Service. A small sign that someone is trying to trick you, perhaps, but one worth noting. Let's look at some other clues that the call was from a scammer and not the IRS.
Perhaps at the top of the clue list: the IRS will always contact you by mail first, letting you know that there's a problem with your tax return or with other statements or documents submitted to the agency. The IRS doesn't suddenly appear out of nowhere, notifying you by phone that jail and lawsuits are imminent.
If you listen to the message left for the Loveland man, the caller says, “The reason of this call is to inform you that IRS is filing lawsuit against you.” Maybe it’s just us, but we believe IRS agents are a bit more articulate than that. They use verbs and other common parts of language.
Last year, the IRS sent out a taxpayer advisory – in fairly clear language that included verbs – that its agents never demand immediate payments over the phone by credit card. It also doesn't demand bank account numbers, debit card numbers or threaten you with driver's license revocation. Those are all signs that someone is trying to illegally wring money out of you and are part of IRS scams.
If you're contacted by a scammer, hang up and contact law enforcement. If you're contacted by the IRS, take the correspondence to a tax attorney experienced in helping clients with matters involving fraudulent tax returns, failure to file returns, failure to pay taxes and other tax-related issues.
From our Cleveland office, Robert J. Fedor, Esq., L.L.C. assists clients across the nation. We offer aggressive, proactive representation in negotiations and litigation, as well as in criminal tax matters.
