The Internal Revenue Service warns consumers about a sophisticated phone scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants, throughout the country.

According to the IRS, “Victims are told they owe money to the IRS and it must be paid promptly through a pre-loaded debit card or wire transfer. If the victim refuses to cooperate, they are then threatened with arrest, deportation or suspension of a business or driver’s license.”

Often, the caller becomes hostile and insulting.

Characteristics of this scam include:

1.    Unexpectedly calls claiming to be from the IRS and threatens police arrest, deportation or license revocation if you don’t pay immediately.

2.    Scammers use fake names often using common names and surnames. They also use fake IRS badge numbers.

3.    Note that scammers may be able to tell you the last four digits of your social security number.

4.    Scammers may send bogus IRS emails to make bogus calls more legit.

5.    Scammers may use background noise of other calls to mimic call site.

6.    Scammers spoof the IRS toll-free number on caller ID to make it appear that it’s the IRS calling.

7.    After threatening victims with jail time or driver’s license revocation, scammers hang up and others soon call back pretending to be from the local police or DMV, and the caller ID supports their claim.

If you suspect scammers calling you, do the following:

1.    Call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040 to confirm such issue.

2.    If you know that you do not owe taxes, call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.

3.    If you’ve been targeted by this scam, you should also contact the Federal Trade Commission and use their “FTC Complaint Assistant” at FTC.gov.  Please add "IRS Telephone Scam" to the comments of your complaint.

You should be vigilant against phone and email scams. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email, text, or social media to request personal or financial information.  The IRS also does not ask for PINs, passwords or similar confidential access information for credit card, bank or other financial accounts. Recipients should not open any attachments or click on any links contained in the message.

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