Five IRS Impersonators Arrested

Posted on July 08, 2016

Five individuals were recently arrested on allegations that they impersonated Internal Revenue Service agents and used the threat of arrest to extort money from victims. The five suspects were arrested in Miami, Florida on May 23, 2016, and were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to the government, the suspects defrauded more than 1,500 victims out of over $2 million dollars. Scams involving individuals pretending to be IRS agents have become increasingly common. In fact, we routinely receive about 3 calls per day from people that have received calls from the “IRS” and have been threatened with immediate arrest if they do not pay.

In fact, my father and one of our employees recently received similar telephone calls. These telephone calls are a scam and you should immediately hang up on these individuals. Further, you should go to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Scam Reporting Page to report the call.

The Florida scammers that were recently arrested persuaded their victims to wire money to them using MoneyGram, WalMart-2-Walmart and other wire sources. Some scammers also demand payment via iTunes cards or other prepaid debit cards. If you receive a call from the “IRS” demanding payment and threatening your immediate arrest, you are certainly the attempted victim of a scam.