IRS Phone Scams Reach A New All-Time High

Posted on July 20, 2015

Have you or someone you know been contacted on the telephone by an individual impersonating an IRS employee trying to seek money?

If yes, you or your friend were the subject of an IRS phone scam and, sadly, you are not alone. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports an alarming rise in IRS telephone scams with at least 9,000 new cases reported each week.

This year alone, the Inspector General has logged 591,000 reports of email and phone scams by people pretending to be IRS or law enforcement officials. The Inspector General has also identified 3,967 victims that lost over a total of $20 million in the IRS phone scams.

If someone calls you and says they are from the IRS, do not give any personal information over the telephone and do not make any immediate payments until you verify that the caller is legitimate and that you truly have an IRS problem. If all of your tax returns are filed and if all of the associated liability has been paid in full, you probably do not have an IRS problem which means that the call you received is probably a scam. Simply hang up the phone and don’t fall for it.